We need strong standards to reduce pollution from dirty power plants

What's At Stake

For too long, fossil-burning power plants have had a free pass to pollute. Coal and gas-fired power plants are responsible for more than 30% of U.S. carbon pollution, and they also emit other pollutants that harm our air, water, and health. For years Earthjustice has fought to clean up power plants and expedite the transition to clean energy. The Biden administration has proposed new standards that would set limits on the amount of carbon pollution power plants are allowed to emit. Join us and urge the administration to enact the strongest possible standards to reduce pollution from dirty power plants.

Strong carbon pollution standards are essential to meet the Biden administration’s climate and environmental justice commitments. Cleaning up the power sector also helps us cut pollution from other sectors. As we electrify our economy, it must run on clean energy.

As this proposal moves forward, the Biden administration must listen to and address concerns from communities who are bearing the unjust burden of power plant pollution and who are on the front lines of the climate crisis. The EPA must conduct rigorous monitoring, verification, and enforcement and establish adequate protections to ensure that these standards are effective.

Tell the Biden administration: Our health — and our climate — can’t wait. It’s time to act boldly and swiftly to finalize and implement the strongest possible pollution standards to meet its climate, public health and environmental justice goals.

Aerial view of the Gulf Energy Center, formerly the Crist Power Plant, located near Pensacola, Florida.
The former Crist Power Plant near Pensacola, Florida, in 2022. (Art Wager / Getty Images)

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Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

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Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

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If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

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It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.