Lead by New York Attorney General Letitia James, 29 states and cities are suing the Trump administration over changes to restrictions being put on coal-burning power plants.
What We Know
- Twenty-two major states and seven cities are suing the Trump Administration in regards to its attempt to repeal Obama’s Clean Power Plan (CPP). The Clean Power Plan was the first plan in history to limit national limits set on pollution from fossil fuel power plants.
- The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to replace the Clean Power Plan’s regulation with its Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. However, the lawsuit claims that the EPA had no basis or legal standing to set the regulations that were put in place.
- Trump’s Affordable Clean Energy rule will leave it up to the states to limit greenhouse gas emissions or use technology to increase power plant efficiency. The Clean Power Plan required facilities to use the “best system of emissions reductions”, place prices on carbon dioxide emissions, and use alternative energy sources.
- The EPA released a statement saying “In regards to ACE, EPA worked diligently to ensure we produced a solid rule, that we believe will be upheld in the courts, unlike the previous Administration’s Clean Power Plan.”
- This lawsuit is a continuation of the current blue state versus red state battle that can be seen when discussing topics in today’s politics. If this case goes all the way to the supreme court, it has the ability to weaken future presidents’ power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.
During a press release James states “Without significant course correction, we are careening towards a climate disaster. Rather than staying the course with policies aimed at fixing the problem and protecting people’s health, safety, and the environment, the Trump administration repealed the Clean Power Plan and replaced it with this ‘Dirty Power’ rule.
