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Environmental Groups Urge EPA to Regulate Global Warming Pollution from U.S. Power Plants
Case Updates:
September 8, 2010
On August 20, Sierra Club and its allies took action to reduce global warming pollution from electric utilities. Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense Fund sent a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson, urging the agency to agree to issue new source performance standards - which set baseline emission limits for new and existing sources - to curb greenhouse gas emissions from electric utilities.
The environmental groups, joined by state and local governments, initially challenged EPA’s failure to issue performance standards that address greenhouse gas emissions from power plants in 2007. Shortly after, the D.C. Circuit remanded the case to EPA for further proceedings after Sierra Club and its allies prevailed in the Supreme Court case, Massachusetts v. EPA, which determined that carbon dioxide is a pollutant subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act.
EPA has since taken important steps towards regulating global warming pollution. The agency has issued a finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger human health and the environment, and recently adopted standards regulating greenhouse gas emissions from light duty vehicles. However, in the nearly three years since the D.C. Circuit remanded the case to EPA, the agency has failed to issue a concrete standard limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, which account for one-third of total U.S. global warming emissions. Demonstrated control technologies can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, and Sierra Club and its allies are urging EPA to issue a national standard based on the limit achievable by the best of these technologies.
Details and Documents:
Sierra Club et al. Letter to EPA Administrator Jackson
August 20, 2010
News Articles:
Groups prod EPA to set carbon limits for power plants
September 8, 2010 by Robin Bravender, Greenwire
More Info:
See other "Stop Polluters" cases.