The dean of the House, Rep. John D. Dingell, said Monday that the Obama administration isn’t using the Clean Air Act as it was intended by imposing new rules regulating greenhouse gases to combat climate change.

The Michigan Democrat, who helped write the Clean Air Act, said climate change is real and needs to be addressed, and dinged Congress for failing to act.

“Although I do not believe the Clean Air Act is intended, or is the most effective way, to regulate greenhouse gases, I nevertheless appreciate the need to take action to protect human health and the environment for the generations who come after us, especially in the absence of a Congress that is willing and able to work together on legislation to address this very real problem,” Dingell said in a statement Monday.

“I look forward to working with the Administration on this matter and hope any final rule will be written and implemented in a fashion that balances the need to reduce carbon pollution with the very real need to promote economic growth.”

Dingell supported the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill when it passed the House in 2009.