Environmental and public health groups sue EPA over power plant regulation rollback

Environmental and public health groups are suing the Environmental Protection Agency over its repeal of power plant carbon pollution standards, arguing the rollbacks threaten Americans’ health and leaves families to cover the extra costs of pollution and climate change.

The six organizations that filed the suit — the American Lung Association, the American Public Health Association, the Clean Air Council, Clean Wisconsin, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Natural Resources Defense Council — are challenging the EPA’s partial repeal of the Biden administration’s 2024 standards that required existing coal plants and certain new natural gas plants to reduce carbon emissions. The petition for review of the EPA’s actions was filed on Sept. 17 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

“Repealing these standards without a replacement is an abdication of EPA’s legal responsibility to protect public health and the environment,” said Meredith Hankins, federal climate legal director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a statement issued jointly by the petitioners. 

The EPA said in an announcement issued on Sept. 14: “The final rule strikes most of the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards, which EPA has determined exceeded the agency’s authority under the [Clean Air Act] by requiring control technologies that are not adequately demonstrated, effectively forcing plants to retire rather than setting standards they could actually meet.” It said removing those requirements would help keep electricity reliable and lower costs.

“Americans will see a decrease in electricity prices, but this is just the beginning,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. “We are working to go even further so that American energy can be fully unleashed. Realizing the full potential of American energy means more jobs, lower prices, and a more prosperous America.”

The EPA’s analysis of the impact of the repeal estimates $310 billion in savings across the economy from 2026 through 2047. It projects that national average retail electricity prices will rise 0.7% in 2030 and fall 5.8% in 2035. Results vary by region.

Those projections do not necessarily mean families will pay less for electricity than they do today, advocates note. Fuel prices, power plant expenses and grid costs all affect electricity prices; cutting one expense does not preclude increases in the cost of others.

The EPA’s analysis does not assign dollar values to other potential costs, such as environmental damage and health outcomes resulting from additional carbon emissions.

“Increased power plant pollution resulting from this rule will cause thousands of premature deaths and billions of dollars in additional health costs,” Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund, said in the petitioners’ joint statement.

Those health concerns extend beyond the impact of greater carbon dioxide emissions. Power plants also release pollutants that contribute to soot and smog. The EPA’s site links power plant pollution to asthma attacks, heart attacks, premature deaths and missed school and work. Families may face  loss of income and medical insurance as well as high medical expenses  if illness keeps them from working.

“Measures that clean up power plant emissions also clean up other lung-harming pollutants at the same time. EPA has the authority and the responsibility to protect people’s health from air pollution,” said Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association.

“Weakening these life-saving standards would strip away vital protections for all, and especially for children, pregnant people and communities already overburdened by pollution,” said Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, CEO of the American Public Health Association.

As the groups challenge the repeal, the EPA is separately proposing eliminating  power plant greenhouse gas standards. The agency said it will hold a public hearing on Oct. 1 and accept public comments until Nov. 2 on the proposal.