Trump Administration Continues to Advance Dangerous Rollback of the Clean Power Plan

(Washington, D.C. – April 30, 2019) The Office of Management and Budget today confirmed today that the Trump administration sent it a draft rule that is expected to eviscerate the Clean Power Plan.

Sending a draft rule to OMB is the last major step before finalizing it.

“Andrew Wheeler’s proposal was an abomination. While the Clean Power Plan would protect Americans from climate change and unhealthy air pollution, Wheeler’s substitute would expose us to more climate pollution and would cause more deaths and disease from soot and smog,” said Tomás Carbonell, EDF lead attorney and director of regulatory policy. “If the proposal just sent to OMB is similar, it will be an unlawful and unacceptable substitute for the historic Clean Power Plan. We will pursue every avenue to oppose a harmful rollback and fight for stronger clean air and climate protections.”

The Clean Power Plan establishes America’s only nationwide limit on carbon pollution from existing power plants. It would reduce climate pollution to 36 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and would also reduce deadly soot and smog.

In August, Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler unveiled a proposal to weaken the Clean Power Plan and instead adopt a rule with no substantial limits on health-harming pollution from coal power plants.

Wheeler’s proposal contained no quantitative limits or compliance deadlines at all. It required only that states establish their own standards based on a narrow and ineffective set of operational efficiency tweaks. The proposal also included harmful revisions to long-standing New Source Review protections that would allow power plants to increase health-harming pollution without installing modern pollution controls.

By EPA’s own estimates, Wheeler’s proposal could result in as many as 1,630 extra American deaths per year by 2030.

EDF submitted comments to EPA strenuously opposing the administration’s proposal. You can read those, and find more resources about the Clean Power Plan, on EDF’s website.