EPA, Dems cheer climate ruling

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson is applauding the new federal court ruling that rejected several challenges to the agency's climate change regulations.

“Today's ruling is a strong validation of, in the court's own words, the ‘unambiguously correct’ approach we have taken in responding to the 2007 Supreme Court decision,” Jackson said, referring to the high court’s 2007 ruling that paved the way for greenhouse gas regulations.

“I am pleased that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found that EPA followed both the science and the law in taking common-sense, reasonable actions to address the very real threat of climate change by limiting greenhouse gas pollution from the largest sources,” Jackson said.

Senior Capitol Hill Democrats also applauded the ruling.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) seized on the portion of the decision that upheld EPA’s “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gases are a threat to human health and welfare.

Waxman, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, called the decision a “resounding victory for science.” The court found that EPA “relied on a substantial record of empirical data and scientific evidence.”

The California Democrat used the ruling to criticize the GOP's efforts to nullify EPA’s climate rules.

“Today’s ruling is a message to Congress that it’s time to stop denying science. Extreme events like the wildfires in Colorado and the floods in Florida are going to get worse unless the Republican-controlled Congress changes course soon,” Waxman said in a statement.