Silver Spring, MD, September 27, 2016––National Medical Association expressed its support for the US Environmental Protection Agency’s position in today’s oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on the Clean Power Plan.

The Clean Power Plan is the first step that the EPA has taken to regulate carbon pollution from electrical power plants since the Supreme Court ruled three times that EPA has that authority under the Clean Air Act to set greenhouse gas standards. In February, the Supreme Court stayed, or blocked EPA from enforcing the Plan, pending an appeal from 29 states. These hearings are for the purpose of determining whether EPA is regulating in the proper manner.

“As always, the safety and health of our patients is paramount in the minds of our physicians, and we believe that greenhouse gases and other power plant pollutants pose a significant threat to our patients’ health,” stated Dr. Richard Allen Williams, 117th NMA President. “As a cardiologist, I am especially concerned about the dangers to my patients’ cardiac and respiratory health from power plant pollution. The Clean Power Plan would result in significant health benefits to my patients and all Americans, and therefore should not be delayed,” Williams said.
Earlier this year, National Medical Association filed an amicus brief in this case in support of EPA and the Clean Power Plan, providing information to the court on the extensive benefits to the health of patients and communities from reducing carbon pollution.

Cutting carbon pollution from power plants also reduces other dangerous pollutants. When fully implemented, the Clean Power Plan is expected to prevent 3,600 premature deaths, 90,000 asthma attacks, and 300,000 missed work and school days per year by 2030, according to EPA.
“Communities of color and low income people are most affected by climate change,” said Dr. Mark Mitchell, co-chair of the NMA Commission on Environmental Health. “Our recent survey showed that 88% of African American physicians are already seeing health effects from climate change in their patients-including injury, worsening of chronic diseases, heat stroke, and mental illnesses,” he said.