WASHINGTON - January 31 - Today, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) and seven co-sponsors in the Senate introduced legislation that would block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ability to limit the carbon dioxide pollution of the nation's biggest polluters and squelch any reductions of the pollution under the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act.

The following statement is from Earthjustice legislative representative Stephanie Maddin:

"With the introduction of his legislation today, Sen. Barrasso has now become the lead voice in the Senate for the nation's biggest polluters, who continue to try to get out of cleaning up their health-threatening air pollution. This piece of legislation is proof of where Sen. Barrasso stands: On the side of polluters who threaten our health, instead of the side of the American public, whose health he should be protecting.

"What Sen. Barrasso and other cronies of big polluters in Congress-including Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Sen. James Inhofe, Rep. Fred Upton, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, and others-are doing is attempting to give major corporate polluters a free pass to continue fouling the air at the cost of our health.

"We believe Americans know better than to support this kind of desperate overreach on the behalf of corporate, polluter special interests. Americans see the proof from 40 years of the Clean Air Act that cleaning up our air has been good for our nation's bottom line and good for our health. Americans also see that Sen. Barrasso and the other elected officials who are behind these efforts to wipe away clean air protections are the leading recipients of dirty energy money in Congress.

"It's time for our elected representatives to stop using taxpayer dollars to create more loopholes for the nation's worst polluters. While we believe Sen. Barrasso's attempt is transparent and doomed to fail, we hope to see our elected representatives standing up for our health and for clean air protections that make our country stronger, more secure, and more prosperous in the global economy."