More Than 2 Million Comments Nationally and Almost 50,000 in Colorado Collected in Support of EPA Limits on Carbon Pollution and Climate Change

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Denver, CO – Today, Colorado conservation groups supporting clean air safeguards announced they have collected almost 50,000 comments from Coloradans and a record two million nationwide in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Carbon Pollution Standard. The proposed rule, which seeks to limit industrial carbon pollution from new power plants, received more public comments than any other in the agency’s history. 

Coloradans from across the state were joined by dozens of nurses, elected officials and religious leaders supporting the EPA’s proposed rule. The groups expect thousands more comments to be collected in the coming weeks even now that the comment period has concluded.

To commemorate the historic comment period, groups that collected comments, Environment Colorado, Colorado Conservation Voters and the National Wildlife Federation, gathered in front of the regional EPA headquarters with public comments. The EPA joined environmental groups in DC earlier this week for the official close of the public comment period on the rule.

The local groups issued the following joint statement: 
“We already knew that Americans strongly support the EPA’s efforts to address climate change and to reduce dangerous air pollution that threatens the health and safety of our children, communities, and wildlife.  Doctors, scientists and other experts agree that carbon pollution threatens our health, plain and simple, by driving climate change which increases the formation of lung-damaging and asthma-attack inducing smog, which is particularly dangerous for kids and seniors. Climate change is also driving more deadly heat waves, floods and infectious diseases.”
 
“But our expectations have been exceeded by the unprecedented support demonstrated by the more than 2 million comments from Americans who support the EPA’s historic standard to curb dangerous industrial carbon pollution from new power plants while urging the EPA to move forward with a strong standard for existing power plants. The message is clear: Americans want cleaner air and less industrial carbon pollution and they want the EPA to protect their kids, their families and their communities from the dangerous effects of climate change.”

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Environment Colorado Research and Policy Center is a state-wide environmental organization, working to protect clean air, clean water and open space.