Skip to Navigation
Skip to Content

Support PSR!

Make a difference in the challenge to confront global warming and prevent nuclear war and the development and use of nuclear weapons.

Donate Now »

Latest Action

The future of the disarmament agenda is on the line now as New START ratification moves forward in the US Senate.

Stopping Greenhouse Gases: The Need for EPA Authority

Stopping climate change and reversing global warming is an urgent health necessity. To accomplish that tough but vital goal, we need to use all the tools and opportunities available to us.

One tool is the Clean Air Act, which gives the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority to regulate air pollutants in order to protect human health.  In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that under the Clean Air Act, the EPA must also regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants.

In December 2009, EPA completed the first step to make that possible:  It issued a formal determination that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases endanger the public health and welfare of current and future generations.  This “endangerment finding” opens the way for the EPA to take concrete steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

However, as the EPA gears up to take effective action, it faces a series of challenges from members of Congress, many of them from coal- and oil-producing states. 

  • In June 2010, the U.S. Senate defeated a resolution introduced by Sen. Murkowski, R-Alaska, which would have tied the EPA’s hands to control carbon pollution.  By rejecting this resolution, the majority of the Senate voted to base U.S. climate policy on the scientific evidence that climate change is real, that human activity is a major driver of carbon pollution, and that urgent action is needed to protect human health and the environment.
  • In July 2010, Sen. Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, introduced a bill that would block any work by the EPA under the Clean Air Act to set standards to curb global warming pollution from power plants and other industrial sources for at least two years.  Calling that bill a “stop-work order” for the EPA, PSR and three dozen other organizations are calling on the Senate to oppose the Rockefeller bill.

Action Alerts

More action alerts»

Resources

  • Hope for a Heated Planet

    Author Bob Musil, former PSR executive director and now scholar-in-residence at American University, has written an insightful and informative account about the climate change issue and how it has finally emerged in the public’s mind as a major public health concern. Read more »

  • Climate Chaos

    Written thoughtfully for a lay audience, this book by PSR Board member Cindy Parker and psychologist and former journalist Steve Shapiro describes in lay terms how climate change will affect our health if it continues unabated. Read more »

  • Pediatric Environmental Health Toolkit Pediatric Environmental Health Toolkit

    The Toolkit is a combination of easy-to-use reference guides for health providers and user-friendly health education materials on preventing exposures to toxic chemicals and other substances that affect infant and child health. Read more »

In the Spotlight

  • August 16, 2010
    Countdown to Zero
    On the 65th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, the Sacramento Annual August Peace Event and Physicians for Social Responsibility-Sacramento screened "Countdown To Zero," a film that traces the history of the atomic bomb from its origins to the present state of global affairs. Read more about this month’s chapter in the spotlight event on Hiroshima.