EPA’s Own Analysis Predicts that, Compared to the Clean Power Plan, the So-Called “Affordable Clean Energy” Rule Could Result in Over 60 Million Tons More Climate Change Pollution and Over 1,600 More Premature Deaths Per Year by 2030
A.G. Underwood Has Promised Legal Challenge to Replacement Rule If It’s Adopted
NEW YORK – Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood, leading a coalition of 26 states, counties, and cities, called on the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to abandon its proposed replacement to the Clean Power Plan, the first nationwide limits on climate change pollution from existing fossil-fueled power plants – one of its largest sources. In extensive comments filed with EPA, the coalition charges that the proposed replacement rule is replete with factual inaccuracies, analytical errors, and legal flaws and, accordingly, concludes that the rule – if adopted – would be unlawful.
Attorney General Underwood has previous made clear that she will sue to block the Trump administration’s proposed plan to dismantle the Clean Power Plan if the plan is adopted.
“In the face of increasingly devastating heat, storms, and floods, the Trump administration continues to push reckless policies that will only worsen climate change and its dire harms,” said Attorney General Underwood. “The Trump EPA’s proposed replacement for the Clean Power Plan will prop up dirty and expensive coal power plants, undercut clean and sustainable electricity, and leave New Yorkers and other Americans to foot the bill. As I’ve made clear, if the Administration adopts this grossly illegal rule, my office will work with our state and local partners to file suit to block it.”
New York has long led the coalition of states, counties, and cities defending the Clean Power Plan. Joining Attorney General Underwood in these new comments are the Attorneys General of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota (by and through its Minnesota Pollution Control Agency), New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia, and the cities of Boulder (CO), Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and South Miami (FL), and Broward County (FL).
In their comments, the coalition stresses the overwhelming scientific evidence of human-induced climate change and its increasing impacts, and the corresponding need for EPA to perform its duty under the Clean Air Act to set nationwide limits on power plant emissions of climate change pollution. The coalition argues that any contention by the Trump EPA that the federal Clean Air Act requires it to discard the Clean Power Plan in favor of this proposal reflects an unlawful interpretation of the Act. Further, the coalition argues that if EPA’s position is that it simply prefers its replacement rule as a matter of policy, such a position would be indefensible in light of the serious harm EPA acknowledges the proposed rule would cause to public health and the environment.
According to EPA’s own analysis, the replacement proposal could actually increase emissions of climate change pollution and other harmful pollutants from power plants. EPA estimates that up to 61 million more tons of carbon dioxide would be emitted from the power sector under the proposed rule in 2030, as compared to the Clean Power Plan. EPA further acknowledges that the proposed replacement rule, as compared to the Clean Power Plan, would cause power plants to emit up to 39,000 more tons of nitrogen oxides and 53,000 more tons of sulfur dioxide in 2030.
The additional air pollution EPA predicts will occur under its proposed replacement rule will mean that hundreds of thousands more people will die prematurely, suffer asthma attacks, and miss school and work. According to an EPA analysis, the replacement rule would result in up to an additional 1,630 premature deaths, 120,000 asthma attacks, 140,000 missed school days, and 48,000 lost work days in 2030, compared to under the Clean Power Plan. The increases in deaths and illnesses that EPA itself predicts will occur as a result of its replacement rule will fall disproportionately on “environmental justice communities,” low-income communities, and communities of color already overburdened by pollution.
As the comments also discuss, EPA has completely turned its back on the successful experience of many states, such as New York under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), to significantly reduce carbon pollution from power plants while growing their economies and maintaining reliability of the electrical grid.
The Clean Power Plan is the culmination of a decade-long effort by partnering states and cities to require mandatory cuts in the emissions of climate change pollution from fossil fuel-burning power plants under the Clean Air Act. The Clean Power Plan, along with the companion rule applicable to new, modified, and reconstructed power plants, would control these emissions by setting limits on the amount of climate change pollution that power plants can emit. The Clean Power Plan would eliminate as much climate change pollution as is emitted by more than 160 million cars a year – or 70 percent of the nation’s passenger cars.
This matter is being handled for Attorney General Underwood by Senior Counsel for Air Pollution and Climate Change Litigation Michael J. Myers, Affirmative Section Chief Morgan A. Costello, Assistant Attorneys General Andrew G. Frank, Brian Lusignan, and Claiborne Walthall, Chief Scientist Alan Belensz, and Legal Assistant Andrea Catalfamo of the Attorney General’s Environmental Protection Bureau, and Chief Economist Peter Malaspina. The Environmental Protection Bureau is led by Bureau Chief Lemuel M. Srolovic and is part of the Division of Social Justice, which is led by Executive Deputy Attorney General for Social Justice Matthew Colangelo.