STATEMENT BY JOHN FLICKER, PRESIDENT & CEO OF AUDUBON
"This is the most important and courageous step any administration has taken to address climate change. The finding comes none too soon and reflects what we all know to be true – that global warming pollution poses a significant threat to human health and the environment we share with birds and other wildlife.
"The Obama administration continues to demonstrate a strong commitment to decisions based on sound science. Today's finding reflects Audubon's own scientific analysis of 40 years of bird population data that revealed the troubling impacts that climate change is already having on bird populations across North America.
"This important finding enables the administration to use the many tools at its disposal to address this problem head on in a responsible manner that will reduce pollution, create clean energy jobs, and help revitalize our economy. Audubon supporters and other nature enthusiasts across the country will join in their efforts to make a crucial difference for the future of our planet.
"Administrator Lisa Jackson and her team at the Environmental Protection Agency are to be commended for their outstanding work in a short period of time to move forward in a meaningful way on the critically important issue of climate change."
Excerpt of the EPA Announcement: After a thorough examination of the scientific evidence and careful consideration of public comments, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten the public health and welfare of the American people. EPA also finds that GHG emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat.
GHGs are the primary driver of climate change, which can lead to hotter, longer heat waves that threaten the health of the sick, poor or elderly; increases in ground-level ozone pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses; as well as other threats to the health and welfare of Americans.
"These long-overdue findings cement 2009's place in history as the year when the United States Government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean-energy reform," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "Business leaders, security experts, government officials, concerned citizens and the United States Supreme Court have called for enduring, pragmatic solutions to reduce the greenhouse gas pollution that is causing climate change. This continues our work towards clean energy reform that will cut GHGs and reduce the dependence on foreign oil that threatens our national security and our economy."