HO, HO, HO…
CO2, CO2, CO2...
Wednesday marks the deadline for industry to respond to legal briefs filed by EPA and its supporters, including states and cities, power companies, clean energy companies, and a coalition of environmental and public health groups in support of the Clean Power Plan. With this key moment just one day away, the Sierra Club has released a new version of the beloved holiday poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” The poem, titled “The Fight Before Christmas,” illustrates the activities of corporate polluters and their allies as they prepare to make their latest legal arguments in support of dirty energy.
In the story, above, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator McCarthy, in a red Tesla sleigh, pays a visit to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to get him in the holiday spirit.
In the legal brief, these groups argue in favor of protecting public health and urged the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to reject hyperbolic pleas for a stay advanced by corporate polluters and their allies. Some of the nation’s biggest polluters are trying to double down on their baseless claims that implementing the EPA’s new standards will result in “irreparable harm.” In reality, delaying or dismantling the Clean Power Plan is what would cause irreparable harm to the American people.
The Clean Power Plan, the cornerstone of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, will clean up the air we breathe and reduce pollution-related respiratory disease, heart conditions and premature deaths, which disproportionately affect the most vulnerable members of society.
Big polluters and their allies are hoping the courts will leave a stay for the Clean Power Plan under the tree this year. But given that the EPA’s first national limits on carbon pollution from power plants rest on a solid foundation of existing law, it’s much more likely that opponents of these critical environmental and public health safeguards will instead get what they deserve: a lump of coal in their stocking.