Following tenacious legal advocacy combined with smart policy work, grassroots organizing and communications, EPA issued standards that will finally force existing coal plants and new gas plants to limit their climate pollution. Sierra Club first sued EPA to adopt greenhouse gas limits for coal plants in 2003, and since then, our attorneys have been closely engaged in the winding road that led to these new standards.
EPA simultaneously finalized new standards that will force coal plants to reduce toxic air pollution, clean up their dangerous coal ash, and minimize effluent pollution that fouls rivers and lakes. These actions follow EPA’s agreement in a consent decree with Sierra Club and other partners to act on state plans to reduce haze pollution that harms air quality in national parks and wilderness areas. Fossil fuel power plants are a primary contributor to haze pollution.
By regulating the full range of pollutants from coal-fired power plants, EPA adopted the approach that Sierra Club has been recommending for over a decade. In addition to engaging in litigation to defend these rules from industry and allied state challenges, our attorneys will work with Sierra Club teams across the states to ensure that these standards are fully implemented and enforced. When utilities are required to control pollution from coal and gas plants, they are more likely to choose clean energy rather than prolonging the lives of these dirty fossil fuel plants.