Earth Protect Blog

First, a U.S. Court of Appeals gave EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt a strict 14-day deadline to implement the court’s decision on critical pollution limits for the oil and gas industry. 

Earlier this month, the D.C. Circuit Court had blocked Pruitt’s attempt to delay implementation of the limits by 90 days, calling his action “unlawful,” “arbitrary,” and “capricious.” Pruitt then asked the court again for more time—52 days or longer—to carry out the court’s decision. 

Yesterday the court said no, pointing out that it would grant Pruitt, “in all practical effect, the very delay” they already rejected. The court ordered that its ruling take full effect in 14 days. 

While we were still celebrating, the U.S. House of Representatives affirmed that climate change poses a direct threat to our national security. 

A previous bipartisan vote in the House Armed Services Committee had included the following language in the National Defense Authorization Act: “[C]limate change is a direct threat to the national security of the United States and is impacting stability in areas of the world both where the United States Armed Forces are operating today, and where strategic implications for future conflict exist.”

The provision also requires a report to Congress on “vulnerabilities to military installations and combatant commander requirements resulting from climate change over the next 20 years.” 

Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) offered an amendment to scrub those provisions, but it failed by a wide margin of 185 to 234—including 46 Republicans joining nearly all House Democrats in voting no. 

These victories are why we fight. Despite an all-out assault on climate action waged by the Trump administration, we stand on the side of science, common sense—and most importantly, what is right. 

Climate change is happening, whether or not President Trump and Administrator Pruitt are willing to admit it or do anything about it. And the climate victories we won under President Obama are strongly grounded in both law and legal precedent. 

Source of News, Environmental Defense Fund 

Fred Krupp

President, EDF