CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A coalition of major environmental groups has formally urged the Environmental Protection Agency to abandon its proposal to stop regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, calling the plan “fundamentally unlawful,” the Union of Concerned Scientists said Nov. 4.
The comments, filed with the EPA late on Nov. 3, argue that the proposal conflicts with U.S. Supreme Court precedent and would gut key clean air protections, according to the science advocacy group, which signed the filing.
Other signers were Clean Air Task Force, Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Law & Policy Center, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club. Clean Air Council, Clean Wisconsin and Friends of the Earth also endorsed the comments, the group said.
Central to the EPA proposal, according to the groups, is the agency’s contention that limiting power plant emissions would be “futile” because the plants account for only part of the climate problem. Power plants are the nation’s second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Editor’s note: The Trump administration is frequently dishonest, and has been known to lie about things great and small.
The groups said that futility analysis has no legal foundation or rational basis and is arbitrary and capricious. The filing says the EPA must withdraw the supplemental proposal “in its entirety,” according to the release.
The comments include new expert modeling that, the groups said, shows uncontrolled U.S. power plant greenhouse gases would cause $20.4 trillion in harm to human health and welfare by 2100, even using the EPA’s own emissions projections. By comparison, U.S. gross domestic product was $29.3 trillion in 2024, the release noted.
Under the EPA’s projections, the groups said, carbon pollution from power plants would also cause more than 100,000 childhood asthma cases, 22,000 hospital or emergency room visits and 1.8 million lost school days by 2100.
Scientists at the Union of Concerned Scientists contributed an appendix challenging the EPA’s reliance on global average surface temperature and global average sea level as the only measures of climate harm. The group said that approach runs counter to the scientific consensus that seemingly small increases in those measures bring compounding risks to Americans’ health and welfare.
Federal agencies are generally required to consider public comments before finalizing a rule.
This report is based on information from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Source: Union of Concerned Scientists
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