Cities, states sue EPA to restore power plant GHG rules — SkimNews
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- A coalition of 25 cities, counties, and states sued the EPA on Thursday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit over its repeal of most Biden-era greenhouse gas emissions requirements for U.S. power plants.
- The same coalition filed a notice of intent to sue over the EPA's failure to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from existing gas-fired "peaker" plants, which it says are disproportionately sited in low-income communities.
- EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced in September the final repeal of most provisions of the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards for Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units and proposed rescinding every remaining GHG standard for the sector, arguing the Clean Air Act does not authorize climate-based regulation of power plants.
- The EPA cited the Trump administration's repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding and the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision as legal bases, and stated that "GHG emissions from power plants have no material impact on global climate change."
- Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said the rollbacks will deliver "record profits for polluters" while leaving air "dirtier and our bills just as high," and pledged to fight to restore the regulations in court.
- Plaintiffs include the City and County of Denver, Chicago, New York City, Pennsylvania's governor, and attorneys general from 18 states plus the District of Columbia, spanning Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
- State attorneys general and a representative from New York City's Mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice testified at a virtual EPA public hearing on the proposal to fully repeal power plant greenhouse gas standards.
Why it matters: The lawsuit directly contests the EPA's central legal argument that the Clean Air Act does not authorize greenhouse gas regulation of power plants — a position built on the repealed 2009 endangerment finding and the Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision. If courts uphold the repeal, the 25 plaintiff jurisdictions lose federal GHG guardrails for both coal-and-gas generation and the peaker plants they say burden low-income communities.
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