Power Plants

This morning, over 20 environmental, public health, and civil rights organizations have taken two legal actions to protect the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (“MATS”). The MATS rule, which was issued in 2012, is fully complied with at this point and has resulted in a 96 percent reduction in these health-harming toxic air pollutants emitted

Hayden Hashimoto, Legal Fellow for Clean Air Task Force, issued the following statement on a new anti-regulatory proposal from EPA: “Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing yet another step to promote polluters’ interests—proposing a rule that would distort longstanding metrics for evaluating the costs and benefits of Clean Air Act regulations, thereby seriously impairing […]

(Washington, D.C. – April 17, 2020) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit should vacate EPA’s “unlawful replacement” for the Clean Power Plan and remand the issue to the agency so it can swiftly establish meaningful protections against carbon pollution from existing power plants, according to public health and environmental advocates. Environmental Defense […]

In possibly the most cynical move to date by the Trump Administration in its efforts to revive the flagging coal industry, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler today signed a final rule reversing a twenty-year old finding that it is “appropriate” under the Clean Air Act to regulate mercury and other airborne toxics from coal-fired power plants—the […]

Today, EPA has proposed a rule on the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter (PM) that is yet another example of the Trump EPA failing to honor its core mission—to promote the American people’s public health. And in a time of a serious pandemic threatening the respiratory systems of millions of Americans, this […]

Today, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) is holding a hearing on the GAIN Act (S. 2662), which would eviscerate the New Source Review (NSR) program of the Clean Air Act. NSR currently requires a major source of air pollution, like a coal-fired power plant, to install best available controls whenever it undergoes […]

Science Advisory Board members voice concerns and seek answers from EPA as board engages in consultation and full review of EPA’s Censored Science proposal

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 8, 2019) – Today, the American Lung Association and the American Public Health Association, represented by attorneys from the Clean Air Task Force, have filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) repeal of the Clean Power Plan – the first-ever federal policy to reduce harmful carbon pollution from power […]