Edward Smith, edward.smith@sierraclub.org
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Today, Donald Trump’s administration proposed to repeal the Endangerment Finding for power plants – a move that would permanently strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to limit greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas power plants under the Clean Air Act. This action would remove one of the EPA’s most powerful tools for combating climate change. Combined with the administration’s February repeal of the Endangerment Finding for motor vehicles, today’s proposal is part of a sweeping effort to dismantle the legal foundation for federal climate regulation, leaving the EPA legally unable to act on the two largest sources of carbon pollution in the country.
Missouri ranked 9th in the country for carbon dioxide emissions from power plants in 2025, totalling 47,961,749 metric tons. That’s the equivalent of 11,187,330 gasoline-powered cars driven for one year or burning 265,883 railcars worth of coal. It would take 793,051,643 tree seedlings growing for 10 years to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from Missouri power plants in 2025 alone. Ameren Missouri released 20,788,676 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2025.
“More than 80 percent of voters chose to support public parks and clean water in August, and we need every single person who cares about Missouri’s environment to join us in telling the EPA that this is unacceptable and it must be stopped,” said Gretchen Waddell-Barwick, Missouri Chapter Director of the Sierra Club.
In 2025, Kansas power plants released 22,211,245 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, with more than 20,000,000 metric tons released by coal-burning power plants. The total carbon dioxide emissions last year are equivalent to 5,180,890 gasoline-powered vehicles driven for one year or 123,131 railcars worth of coal burned. It would take 367,264,846 tree seedlings growing for 10 years to offset the carbon dioxide emissions released by Kansas power plants in 2025 alone. Evergy emitted 25,204,446 metric tons of carbon dioxide between its Kansas and Missouri operations in 2025.
“If the administration prevails, Kansas families and businesses will pay in higher monthly utility bills, health problems due to poor air quality, and more frequent and intense climate disasters like heatwaves, drought, and floods,” said Zack Pistora, Kansas Chapter Director of the Sierra Club. “I’m a new dad, and I think every parent wants to make sure their child has it better than them, and that includes making sure we have a near-term future that’s not filled with climate disasters.”
The proposal is another one of Donald Trump’s attempts to bolster the profits of a struggling coal industry and deliver directly on the promises EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin made to the corporate executives at a National Coal Council meeting in July, where he vowed to fulfill the industry’s “wish list.” The administration has already given more than $700 million in taxpayer dollars to the coal industry, despite the immense public and environmental harms associated with burning coal for electricity, and the well-documented evidence that renewable energy is now cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable than fossil fuels.
The handouts and regulatory giveaways come as renewable energy continues to outperform coal in the marketplace. In May, solar energy generated more electricity than coal across the entire country. The coal industry cannot compete with solar—it’s being kept on life support by taxpayer subsidies and regulatory handouts, while ordinary families pay the price in higher electricity bills, dirtier air, and more extreme weather fueled by carbon pollution.
“While wildfires rage, floods devastate communities, and families struggle to afford skyrocketing electricity bills and insurance premiums, the Trump administration is handing the fossil fuel industry a license to keep polluting,” said Sierra Club Chief Program Officer Holly Bender. “This is full-throated climate denial while the climate crisis happens in real time and a shocking betrayal of the American public. The Sierra Club will fight back against this reckless and dangerous proposal with everything we have in the courts, in Congress, and in communities across the country.”
Background
The Endangerment Finding is a 2009 scientific determination by the EPA that greenhouse gasses pose a significant threat to public health and the environment. It is the legal cornerstone of the EPA’s authority to regulate climate pollution under the Clean Air Act – the foundation upon which vehicle standards, power plant rules, and other climate protections have all been built. The nonpartisan National Academies of Sciences confirmed last year that the finding “was accurate, has stood the test of time, and is now reinforced by even stronger evidence.”
The Sierra Club has been at the forefront of the fight for federal climate standards longer than any other organization. In December 2002, the Club filed the first-ever climate case under the Clean Air Act in federal court, which ultimately led to the Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA that the Clean Air Act covers greenhouse gas pollution and to all of the federal climate standards that followed. Now, two-and-a-half decades later, Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin are trying to destroy those hard-won victories in an effort to double-down on the fossil fuels that are harming the climate and environment, and driving up costs.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.