WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) today helped defeat a resolution that would have effectively dismantled the Clean Air Act as a tool for addressing climate change.

The Senate voted 53-47 this afternoon to defeat a resolution, introduced by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), that would have overturned the Environmental Protection Agency's scientific finding that greenhouse gases are pollutants that impact public health and welfare. Overturning that decision would prevent the EPA from adopting standards for the largest greenhouse emitters and upend the agency's first greenhouse gas standards for motor vehicles.

"As oil gushes into the Gulf it should be clear that we need policies that lessen our dependence on fossil fuels. Negating EPA's scientific finding and its authority to regulate greenhouse gases in the absence of legislation to control emissions makes no sense. It is a misguided attempt to put politics ahead of science and public health. Instead of trying to weaken our environmental laws we should be strengthening them and holding polluters accountable," said Reed, a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Environment.

Had it passed, the Murkowski measure, S.J. Res. 26, would ultimately increase America's dependence on oil and provide another opportunity for big oil companies to escape accountability.

"We must invest in new clean energy technology that can help transform our economy and create new jobs here at home. This resolution would have ceded those opportunities to Europe, China, and other global competitors," said Reed. "We need to hold polluters accountable and can't afford to delay our clean energy future any longer. Stronger emissions standards will save Rhode Island drivers millions of dollars at the pump and reduce our reliance on oil."

S.J. Res. 26 only needed 51 votes to pass in the Senate under the Congressional Review Act, a rarely used law that provides Congress with expedited procedures to void agency rules.

"This is not only an economic issue, it's a national security issue," concluded Reed. "The 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review pointed out that "assessments conducted by the intelligence community indicates that climate change could have significant geopolitical impacts around the world, contributing to poverty, environmental degradation, and the further weakening of fragile governments. Climate change will contribute to food and water scarcity, will increase the spread of disease, and may spur or exacerbate mass migration." In effect, what this review suggested is that it is very likely that climate change will be an accelerant of instability. And at this moment in time, the last thing we need is to accelerate instability in the world."