Schumer, Whitehouse Lead Senate Opposition to EPA’s Dangerous Rollback of Power Plant Pollution Standards

Washington, DC— Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), led 30 of their Senate colleagues in urging Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin to withdraw his agency’s proposals to gut power plant pollution standards.  The Trump Administration has proposed both weakening toxic pollution regulations and ending the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants. 

“The Trump Administration is saying to hell with five decades worth of protection against deadly pollution and neurotoxins that has saved thousands of lives, made communities safer, and our economy stronger. Why? To appease Big Oil and fossil fuel billionaires. The Trump Administration’s obsession with gutting clean air protections and allowing more poison into the air is reckless, dangerous, and a clear reminder: Republicans care about their donors, not you. The EPA needs to stop ignoring the science and the facts and immediately reverse course and put the health and safety of Americans first,” said Leader Schumer. 

“Once again, the Trump Administration is hurting the American people to help corrupt fossil fuel polluters.  In addition to millions of tons of climate pollution every year, fossil fuel-fired power plants spew mercury, soot, and the gases that cause acid rain.  The fossil fuel ‘free-to-pollute’ business model, enabled by the Trump Administration, is poisoning people and putting us on the fast track to climate change-driven economic disaster,” said Ranking Member Whitehouse. 

The proposed rollbacks target different dangerous air pollutants, but they apply to the same dirty fossil power plants.  Many of the plants are decades old and operate without today’s standard pollution controls.  The Trump Administration’s plans to allow unchecked poisonous emissions from these power plants will cause serious health problems for American children and families.   

For example, “[m]ercury is a powerful neurotoxin, and mercury pollution can cause permanent brain damage, kidney damage, and birth defects.  Fossil fuel-fired power plants are the largest source of mercury emissions in the United States, and these plants emit massive volumes of other toxic pollutants as well, poisoning our air and water and particularly impacting those living near power plants.  An estimated 80 million Americans live within three miles of a fossil fuel-fired power plant, approximately 17 million of whom are children,” wrote the Senators in their comment letter. 

The Trump Administration’s proposed rollbacks will also saddle the United States with hundreds of billions of dollars in health care expenses and climate damages.   

“By EPA’s own analysis, the existing Mercury and Air Toxics Standards would have achieved $430 million in quantified health and climate benefits, and even more significant unquantified health benefits, over the decade between 2028 and 2037, while the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards would have achieved up to $370 billion in net benefits over two decades, with annualized net benefits of $20 billion.  In its repeal proposals, EPA does not provide analysis contradicting this prior analysis,” wrote the Senators. 

Despite the Trump Administration’s disregard for established science, greenhouse gases are known to cause climate change, which is already raising costs for American families.  Fossil fuel-fired plants are among the planet’s largest sources of greenhouse gas pollution.  “Power plants are responsible for a quarter of U.S. GHG emissions, and about 3 percent of all global climate pollution.  In other words, U.S. power plants alone produce more climate pollution than all but three of the world’s 195 countries,” continued the Senators.  

“We represent millions of constituents who risk poisoning from mercury and air toxics and who are facing the rising costs of the climate crisis.  Congress established the Clean Air Act to protect our constituents from these dangers.  We urge EPA to follow its directive.  As neither of these proposals does so, we ask you to withdraw them and to reverse your decision to rescind these two important rulemakings,” concluded the Senators. 

In addition to Leader Schumer and Ranking Member Whitehouse, the comment letter was signed by Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Angus King (I-ME), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). 

Ranking Member Whitehouse also filed a second comment letter opposing EPA’s proposal to eliminate the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants.  As he makes clear, EPA plans to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions standards from these polluting plants while ignoring the devastating health and climate costs—detailed in both comment letters—caused by the plants’ toxic pollution.  EPA sought to hide the true cost of its proposed rollback by improperly excluding the social cost of carbon from its cost estimates, which EPA has included in every impact analysis since 2008—including during President Trump’s first term.  Notably, even with this egregious omission, EPA’s own analysis of the proposal indicates that the reduction in compliance costs to industry would pale in comparison to the billions of dollars in public health costs borne by the American people. 

While the Trump Administration claims that the damages from climate change are uncertain, “EPA has not provided any justification for why this uncertainty suddenly renders it necessary—or even plausible—to assign a climate cost of zero,” wrote Senator Whitehouse.  “The proposed rule already imposes unacceptable costs by EPA’s own flawed accounting. Its failure to account for the social cost of carbon renders it unsalvageable, its association with fossil fuel political influence makes it unpalatable, and it should be withdrawn.” 

The Senators’ comment letter is available here.  Ranking Member Whitehouse’s comment letter is available here.