States and cities file lawsuit against EPA for revoking power plant emission limits

Twenty-one states and several major cities have filed a lawsuit challenging the EPA’s repeal of the power‑plant emissions rule. The coalition, led by New York and including Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, also counts Pennsylvania’s governor, the District of Columbia, New York City, Chicago and the city‑county of Denver. They ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review and strike down the agency’s decision. The EPA said the rollback will save the industry more than $300 billion and will “unleash” American energy, adding that utilities can choose cost‑saving options for ratepayers, according to assistant administrator Aaron Szabo. The agency declined to comment on the pending case. New York Attorney General Letitia James called the move a “betrayal of American families” and accused the federal government of “callous disregard” for health and the environment. The coalition argues the EPA abandoned pollution limits without weighing alternatives or the huge health and climate costs of higher emissions. They also plan to sue over the agency’s failure to regulate many gas‑fired power plants.

Context

The lawsuit follows a wave of climate‑change litigation, including a Supreme Court case where Boulder, Colorado, seeks compensation from oil and gas firms for climate‑linked disasters. The repealed rule reverses policies set under Presidents Obama and Biden aimed at cutting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from power generation.