Environmental and public health groups are suing the Trump administration over its most recent move to eliminate protections against climate-warming pollution.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced a plan on Monday, finalized in the Federal Register on Thursday, to revoke most of a Biden-era rule to limit greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel power plants. The agency also proposed getting rid of all remaining greenhouse gas emission requirements for the plants, doubling down on climate denial.
Opposing the final rule, the American Lung Association, Natural Remitted a petition Thursday asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to review the changes. Leaders from the groups called the EPA plan unlawful and said it would endanger human health and the environment by worsening climate change, while triggering billions of dollars of healthcare costs
By rolling back these critical protections, millions
“By rolling back these critical protections, millions of Americans will get sicker, face more extreme weather, and pay more for energy and electricity, with vulnerable communities suffering the most,” said Lawrence Hafetz, legal director of the Pennsylvania-based Clean Air Council, one of the groups involved, in a statement. “EPA is supposed to protect people and the environment, not rewrite the rules to benefit polluters.”
The EPA’s announcement came on the heels of a summer of deadly and record-breaking heat, massivewildfires and, last month in Nepal, devastating floods from glacial collapse that killed at least 1,300 people—and which scientists confirmed this week were precipitated by human-caused climate change. Meanwhile, a new United Nations report said current emissions are rapidly pushing the world into even more intensifying dangers.
Globally, the U.S. is the largest historic emitter of greenhouse gases, which are primarily produced by burning fossil fuels.
The EPA said it does not comment on pending litigation. The agency did not respond to questions about critiques of its rule.
