Bianca Sanchez, bianca.sanchez@sierraclub.org
ORLANDO, Fla. - According to reporting, Donald Trump’s administration will propose to repeal the Endangerment Finding for power plants today – a move that would strip the Environmental Protection Agency of one of its most powerful tools for combating climate change, the authority to limit greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas power plants under the Clean Air Act.
Florida ranked second in the country in total carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel power plants in 2025. The state’s fossil fuel facilities emitted a combined 87.9 million tons of carbon dioxide, equal to emissions produced by 20.5 million gas-powered cars annually. Florida Power & Light, a local subsidiary of NextEra, ranked second in highest emitting local utilities, having emitted 39.9 million tons of carbon dioxide.
“Florida is no stranger to the consequences of climate change and continued reliance on gas and coal for power,” said Susannah Randolph, Sierra Club Florida Chapter Director. “We know the costs of repeatedly bailing out the billion dollar coal, gas, and oil industries. Floridians in every corner of the state have weathered record-breaking hurricane seasons and increasingly unaffordable energy bills. Rolling back pollution standards, granting utilities a free pass to emit toxins into the air, is not a means of saving money. It’s a means of making corporate executives money while our families, neighbors, and future generations pay the price.”
Repealing the Endangerment Finding for power plants, is another one of 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 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.
“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.”
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.
The Sierra Club helped bring the landmark Massachusetts v. EPA Supreme Court case that established EPA’s obligation to regulate greenhouse gas pollution under the Clean Air Act. The EPA’s greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator is here.
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.