EPA eliminates pollution limits for power plants, abandoning its obligation to protect public health and welfare
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its repeal of the 2024 carbon pollution standards for existing coal-fired and new gas-fired power plants.
“Eliminating carbon pollution standards for power plants is yet another move in EPA’s deregulatory blitz that will harm the climate and our health – all while giving a pass to polluters,” said Frank Sturges, Senior Attorney at Clean Air Task Force (CATF). “Carbon pollution standards save lives. This repeal puts them in danger.”
Power sector emissions rose by four percent last year, while the U.S. saw its fourth hottest year on record. And studies have long shown that pollution from power plants contributes significantly to climate change, harming public health through increased wildfire smoke, stronger heat waves, and other impacts.
Sturges continued:
“EPA has an obligation to protect public health and welfare, and setting pollution limits on power plants as it did in its 2024 rule is an essential part of doing that. Just over two years ago, EPA took this air pollution problem seriously and applied court precedent and rigorous technical analysis to identify achievable standards and guidelines. Unfortunately, the agency today takes the opposite approach and uncritically adopts arguments that already fell flat in the courts – including on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket – in its rush to eliminate pollution limits currently on the books. CATF will continue to defend these carbon pollution limits and the climate and public health benefits they deliver.”
The 2024 rule carried out EPA’s obligation under the Clean Air Act to determine the best system of emission reduction for carbon pollution that is adequately demonstrated, considering costs and non-air pollution health and environmental impacts. The agency sets pollution control limits based on what can be achieved by application of that system, but states and individual power plants choose how to comply with those limits – not necessarily by using the system identified by EPA.
“The administration’s repeal ignores the growing evidence that carbon capture and sequestration – a pollution scrubber that has been commercially used for decades – is an effective way to reduce carbon emissions while also refusing to offer an alternative solution. Instead, the agency fully scrapped carbon capture-based limits,” said Ben Grove, Director, Industrial Innovation at CATF. “Every year, the U.S. captures and permanently sequesters approximately 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from industrial sources, and there are over 100 additional projects currently under construction or in development. This pollution control technology has only become more widespread and cost-reasonable since EPA finalized its rule just over two years ago.”
Press Contact
Samantha Sadowski, Senior Communications Manager, U.S., ssadowski@catf.us, +1 202-440-1717
About Clean Air Task Force
Clean Air Task Force (CATF) is a global nonprofit organization working to safeguard against the worst impacts of climate change by catalyzing the rapid development and deployment of low-carbon energy and other climate-protecting technologies. With 30 years of internationally recognized expertise on climate policy and a fierce commitment to exploring all potential solutions, CATF is a pragmatic, non-ideological advocacy group with the bold ideas needed to address climate change. CATF has offices in Boston, Washington D.C., and Brussels, with staff working virtually around the world. Visit catf.us and follow @cleanaircatf.
