Attorney General Bonta Calls on U.S. EPA to Withdraw Harmful Proposed Repeal of Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards for Fossil Fuel-Fired Power Plants

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Air Resources Board today joined a coalition of 23 states and cities in submitting a comment letter opposing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to repeal all greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants and to eliminate the basis for those standards — the determination that power plant GHG emissions cause harmful climate change. The coalition asserts in its comments that these standards protect against increased emissions and further acceleration of climate change. The proposal, if finalized, could increase carbon dioxide pollution contributing to climate change by eliminating existing requirements for power plants to take steps to control their carbon dioxide emissions. 

“Rolling back emission standards for dirty power plants jeopardizes critical progress at a time when it is most needed to confront the escalating impacts of climate change,” said Attorney General Bonta. “We’ve seen these impacts in California just this year with ravaging fires across Los Angeles. The EPA must stop ignoring the facts and immediately withdraw this reckless proposal.”

The EPA proposal includes a sweeping rollback of all GHG emission standards for new and existing fossil fuel-fired power plants. If finalized, the proposal would repeal both the 2015 New Source Performance Standards and the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards, which limit carbon emissions from new natural gas-fired and existing coal-fired power plants. It would also rescind EPA’s 2015 finding that power plant GHG emissions significantly contribute to harmful climate change. 

Fossil fuel-fired power plants in the United States are collectively one of the largest contributors to climate pollution anywhere in the world. Failing to control their carbon dioxide emissions will exacerbate significant threats facing California and Californians, intensifying and increasing heat waves, severe storms, flooding, disease, worsening air quality, and harming regional ecosystems. In the last year alone, California has experienced two of the most destructive fires in state history, the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, both in Los Angeles County, with over 37,469 acres damaged, 30 deaths, multiple first responders injured, and over 16,251 structures destroyed.

In the comment letter, the coalition asserts that: 

• EPA’s proposed rule would significantly undermine efforts to address climate change and thus expose communities — particularly low-income and frontline communities — to greater environmental harm.
• EPA’s proposed finding that power plants do not “contribute significantly” to greenhouse gas emissions violates the law and common sense.
• The proposal arbitrarily and capriciously disregards effective measures plants can take to control their carbon dioxide emissions.
• Despite unlawfully and illogically assuming reducing greenhouse gas emissions has zero benefit, EPA still admits that the rules it proposed to repeal are net beneficial to the American public.

In submitting the comment letter, Attorney General Bonta and CARB join the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, and the Chief Legal Officers of the City and County of Denver, and the Cities of Boulder, Chicago, and New York.  

A copy of the comment letter can be found here.