Barbara Boxer: “Thank you very much, Mr. President. In 2007, in its landmark decision called Massachusetts v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme…”

“Thank you very much, Mr. President. In 2007, in its landmark decision called Massachusetts v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court found very clearly that carbon pollution is covered under the Clean Air Act. I think it is important to note that the Bush administration took the position that carbon pollution could not be covered under the Clean Air Act. They wasted about 8 long years litigating the matter, and we lost a lot of time. But when the Supreme Court finally spoke out, this is what they said, and I quote from the decision: Because greenhouse gases fit within the Clean Air Act's capacious definition of ``air pollutant,'' we hold that EPA has the statutory authority to regulate the emission of such gases. . . . Following the Supreme Court decision, the Obama administration issued an endangerment finding which showed that current and future concentrations of carbon pollution are harmful to our health. This finding built on the work of the Bush administration, and we found some of the raw data from the Bush administration, and we went public with it. This is what the endangerment finding said, among other things: No. 1, severe heat waves are expected to intensify, which can increase heat-related death and sickness. No. 2, climate change is expected to worsen regional smog pollution, which can cause decreased lung function, aggravated asthma, increased emergency-room visits, and premature deaths.…”