EPA Follows the Science, Denies Climate Deniers' Petition

WASHINGTON (July 29, 2010) -- EPA today denied petitions from a rogues gallery of climate deniers who had asked the agency to reconsider its scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and the environment.

Following is a statement from Daniel Lashof, Ph.D., Director of the NRDC Climate Center:

“EPA carefully considered and found baseless the assertions of climate deniers such as Peabody Coal, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the State of Texas. EPA is in good company. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has recently reaffirmed that global warming is occurring, is caused mainly by heat-trapping pollution, and poses a serious danger to the United States. Meanwhile five independent review panels also examined the stolen emails cited by the petitioners and reached the same conclusion as EPA -- nothing in the emails calls into question the validity of the data upon which EPA based its original finding. It’s time for the climate deniers to stop wasting taxpayers’ money by forcing EPA staff to spend countless hours responding to their frivolous claims, and let EPA get back to doing its job -- enforcing the Clean Air Act to protect public health and the environment.”