Don't Let EPA Give Power Plants a Climate Pass

The EPA just wiped away major climate protections for coal- and gas-fired power plants. Now it wants to go even further — and make it harder for the federal government to crack down on their climate pollution in the future.

The Trump administration’s EPA has finalized the repeal of most of the Biden-era greenhouse-gas standards for fossil-fuel power plants. At the same time, the agency proposed eliminating the remaining federal greenhouse-gas standards for power plants.

Its justification is staggering.

EPA is advancing a legal interpretation under which emissions from U.S. fossil-fuel power plants do not contribute significantly enough to dangerous climate pollution to warrant regulation under this part of the Clean Air Act.

That’s difficult to square with reality. Power plants are among the nation’s biggest sources of greenhouse gases, with the electric power sector responsible for roughly a quarter of U.S. climate pollution. Coal plants are especially carbon-intensive, while gas plants can also produce enormous quantities of carbon dioxide — even before accounting for methane leaking throughout the gas supply chain.

And the consequences of continued warming aren't theoretical. Americans are already living with more dangerous heat, rising seas and worsening risks from extreme weather.

Yet instead of forcing major polluters to clean up, EPA is dismantling safeguards and arguing that the economic benefits of repeal justify the retreat. The administration estimates its rollback will save industry roughly $310 billion over about two decades. But the previous EPA estimated its power-plant standards would deliver roughly $370 billion in climate and public-health benefits.

This isn't just about one regulation. If EPA succeeds in establishing a sweeping rationale for avoiding greenhouse-gas limits on power plants, it could make rebuilding strong federal protections considerably harder.

But EPA hasn’t finished the job yet. Its sweeping attempt to eliminate the remaining climate-pollution standards — and declare power-plant greenhouse gases effectively beyond EPA’s reach under this part of the Clean Air Act — is still a proposal. That means there is still time to fight it.

Please sign the petition demanding that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin withdraw the proposal to eliminate the remaining greenhouse-gas standards and restore strong, legally durable limits on climate pollution from fossil-fuel power plants.

The petition to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin reads: Stop dismantling federal protections against climate pollution from coal- and gas-fired power plants. Withdraw EPA’s proposal to eliminate the remaining greenhouse-gas standards and restore strong, legally durable limits on power-sector carbon pollution. Power plants are a major source of the pollution driving climate change, and EPA should protect Americans from that threat — not deny its significance.

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Sources:

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/6088870-trump-epa-climate-change-coal-gas-power-plants/

https://apnews.com/article/epa-power-plants-trump-coal-gas-climate-cac1c2c75f8656d8eaf5f0a240edae15