John Sarbanes: “Lying to Congress is a crime, regardless of whether or not you are sworn in.”

It's a national environmental treasure. It's a regional economic engine. It's been one of my top priorities since I've come to Congress.

It is important to be clear that EPA's proposed standards are reasonable, performance-based emissions standards and constitute neither a national electric vehicle mandate nor an internal combustion ban.

But these are dramatic changes that can bring us to a new place and, I think, have given many people a sense of hope instead of despair in the face of what we are seeing with a warming planet.

Congress gave EPA this role more than 50 years ago under the Clean Air Act and reaffirmed that responsibility in 2005 under the Energy Policy Act.