<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Environmental and public health groups filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on September 17, 2026, regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rollback of limits on carbon emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Natural Resources Defense Council, American Lung Association, American Public Health Association, Clean Air Council, Clean Wisconsin, and Environmental Defense Fund initiated the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. They argue that the EPA violated its obligations under the Clean Air Act by repealing the standards without implementing replacements.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This lawsuit follows the EPA's finalization of a partial repeal of the Biden administration’s 2024 carbon pollution standards, which the agency claims will reduce regulatory costs, enhance electric-grid reliability, and save approximately $310 billion in compliance costs. The EPA has also proposed eliminating the remaining greenhouse gas standards for power plants.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Repealing these standards without a replacement is an abdication of EPA’s legal responsibility to protect public health and the environment,” stated Meredith Hankins, federal climate legal director at NRDC. “The Clean Air Act and Supreme Court precedent demand that the EPA address climate pollution from the largest industrial source in the nation.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The groups contend that emissions from power plants pose significant health risks.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Clean air is a basic human right,” said Georges C. Benjamin, CEO of the American Public Health Association. He noted that power plant pollution threatens millions of Americans, particularly affecting children, pregnant individuals, and communities already experiencing high pollution levels.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Harold Wimmer, President and CEO of the American Lung Association, remarked that power plant emissions contribute to climate change and that reducing carbon emissions can also lower other pollutants harmful to lung health.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The EPA has defended the rollback as a means to enhance access to reliable and affordable energy. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated, “For over 15 years, the Obama and Biden administrations implemented a war on coal to destroy reliable and affordable energy. The Trump Administration has come in to protect American energy and to make sure you can afford to keep the lights on.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Under the final rule, new coal-fired power plants will still be subject to standards established in 2015, while new natural gas plants will remain under the 2015 standards and certain efficiency requirements set for 2024.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Biden-era rules mandated that existing coal plants and new natural gas plants meet carbon pollution limits based on technologies such as carbon capture. The Trump EPA argued that repealing these requirements would reduce compliance costs and maintain energy options as electricity demand increases.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The dispute represents the latest development in a prolonged legal battle over the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The Supreme Court limited that authority in its 2022 ruling in <em>West Virginia v. EPA</em>, following which the Biden administration developed its 2024 regulations.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Environmental groups are now seeking to block the Trump administration’s rollback through the D.C. Circuit, indicating another legal confrontation over the extent of federal authority to regulate carbon emissions from power plants.</p>