Washington, D.C. – Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today released the following statement after supporting a resolution that would overturn a Trump Administration anti-environment rule and reinstate the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan:

“The climate crisis is an urgent global threat that we must address now. Instead, the Trump Administration is continuing its failure of leadership by ignoring facts and science, and putting big polluters ahead of public health and our environment. President Trump’s decision to gut the Clean Power Plan was not only short-sighted, but a grave mistake. This plan would have fought climate change by reducing carbon pollution, creating healthier communities and thousands of clean energy jobs. Rather than take meaningful action and build on the Clean Power Plan, the Trump Administration put forward its own inadequate plan that would result in increased carbon emissions, give polluters a free pass, and do nothing to put us on the path toward a clean energy economy. The President’s recklessness needs to stop.”     

The Clean Power Plan set the first-ever national standards to reduce carbon pollution from power plants by 32 percent. By 2030, the plan would have provided $54 billion in climate and health benefits each year, prevented thousands of premature deaths and asthma attacks in children, reduced electricity bills for homes and businesses, and created thousands of high-paying jobs.