Bianca Sanchez, bianca.sanchez@sierraclub.org
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - 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.
West Virginia ranked tenth in the country in total carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel power plants in 2025. The state’s coal plants emitted 44.5 million tons of carbon dioxide. Local gas plants added nearly two million more tons of pollution. That total equates to the emissions of 10.8 million gas-powered cars annually. This amount does not include the 18 GW of planned gas infrastructure that is proposed to meet data center electricity demand.
Repealing the Endangerment Finding is another attempt by Trump 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 clean energy is now cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable than fossil fuels.
“For years, fossil fuel companies have lobbied for a free pass at polluting our communities without any accountability,” said Lisa Di Bartolomeo, Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Organizer in West Virginia. “Today’s proposal will give the billion dollar coal and gas industries exactly what they want, all at the expense of our air, our bills, and our future. West Virginians know the consequences of coal dependency and a worsening climate. We’ve lived with the realities of unaffordable energy bills and deadly floods and storms. Rolling back pollution standards will not save money or lives, it will put us and our children at further risk as storms worsen and costs increase.”
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 fossil fuel 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.”
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.