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Yale Climate Connections
Transcript:
More than 50 years ago, Republican President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act of 1970. It authorizes the federal government to regulate harmful air pollutants.
And it was well understood at the time that one of those pollutants was climate-warming carbon dioxide.
Naomi Oreskes, a professor of the history of science at Harvard University, says many people now are unaware of this history.
Oreskes: “There have been debates both in Congress and in the courts about whether or not the Clean Air Act applies to carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.”
So her team reviewed government documents from the 1960s. She says they found more than 100 congressional hearings in which CO2 and human-caused climate change were discussed.
Oreskes: “And what we were able to show was that … the members of Congress who wrote and passed the Clean Air Act were well aware of carbon dioxide and they understood that it was a pollutant.”
She says that’s why the words “weather” and “climate” are included in the text of the law.
Oreskes: “So if anyone tries to claim that there’s no way Congress could have intended this statute to apply to carbon dioxide, it’s just wrong and we’ve now shown that it’s wrong.
And she says knowing what lawmakers intended back then is important when determining how the law should be applied now.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media
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by YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections
April 14, 2025
