Washington, D.C. -- Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, today announced that environmental attorney Joe Mendelson will join her EPW team as Chief Climate Counsel.

Mendelson served as the Policy Director of the Climate and Energy Program at the National Wildlife Federation, where he led a staff that develops strategies for climate change and energy policy. Mendelson played a key role in a landmark 2007 Supreme Court decision that established that the Environmental Protection Agency has jurisdiction over reducing carbon pollution from motor vehicles. He has worked for nearly two decades on these issues.

Senator Boxer said: "Dangerous climate change poses an urgent threat and we have a responsibility to address that threat. I am so pleased that Joe Mendelson will be joining the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee team. We will make the most of his expertise as we craft solutions to climate change."

A native of Buffalo, New York, Mendelson earned a J.D. from George Washington University's National Law Center in 1991 and received his B.A. from Colgate University in 1988.

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