San Francisco, California - Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today released a statement on California joining an unprecedented coalition of 17 Attorneys General and Vice President Al Gore to protect and continue America's progress in combatting climate change.

“Climate change has real and lasting impacts on our environment, public health, and the economy,” said Attorney General Kamala D. Harris. “California has been a national leader in fighting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and I am proud to join this effort to preserve and protect our natural resources for future generations to come.”

The coalition includes Attorney General Harris and Attorneys General from Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington and the US Virgin Islands.

Attorney General Harris has worked with many in the coalition on previous multi-state environmental efforts, including the ongoing defense of groundbreaking national standards to address power plant greenhouse gas emissions. In November 2015, she joined 17 states, the District of Columbia and several major cities to defend President Obama's Clean Power Plan, which requires existing fossil-fueled power plants to substantially reduce emissions by 2022 and 2030. She also joined with 15 other states and two major cities to defend the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in cases challenging the New Source Standards, which limit emissions from new, modified and reconstructed power plants.

Attorney General Harris will continue to fight for smart solutions to remedy the harmful effects of climate change in California. She aggressively fought to protect California's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32), and is currently defending challenges to the state's Cap-and-Trade auctions and its precedent-setting Low Carbon Fuels Standard.