WASHINGTON – U. S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a senior member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today issued the following statement on the decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to reject a challenge to the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan.

“The three-judge panel of the federal appeals court wisely rejected this challenge to the EPA’s fore-sighted efforts to address pollution that is causing climate change, a step we must take immediately on behalf of our global environment. In doing so, the court noted that those who would block the path to progress are ‘chomping at the bit’ to contest the regulations so vehemently that they had prematurely objected to them. Their suit was an overly litigious, knee-jerk reaction to a commonsense, state-driven, approach to reduce U.S. carbon pollution that is changing the Earth’s climate and is linked to increased incidence of extreme weather events, sea level rise, and declines in fish and wildlife species. This unsuccessful and premature attempt to thwart the regulation of carbon pollution shows the lengths to which polluters are willing to go to stall national efforts to curb climate change. Now more than ever, we must resist their short-sighted attempts, for the sake of the world we leave our children and grandchildren. This decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals moves us wisely in the right direction.”

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