Trump is Making Pollution Great Again: Attorney General Bonta Files Lawsuit Challenging EPA’s Rescission of Power Plant Emissions Rules

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Air Resources Board today joined a coalition of 25 states, counties, and cities in filing a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rescission of three main aspects of EPA’s 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards (CPS) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The rule change repeals Biden Administration-era protections from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from coal, oil, and gas-fired power plants. In the lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition ask the court to vacate EPA’s illegal rescission of the 2024 CPS and restore EPA’s greenhouse gas emission standards.

“While California is focused on protecting the environment and the health of our loved ones, President Trump remains hell-bent on protecting the pockets of the fossil fuel industry. Rolling back emission standards for power plants is an affront to the American people,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “President Trump’s EPA continues to fail at protecting our environment. Let’s be clear: The President’s climate defeatism has no place in California. We won’t let these actions put our communities at risk. We’ve seen the impacts of climate change firsthand and will continue to fight back.”  

“Today California is challenging the federal government's latest public health rollback that abandons science-based limits on power plant pollution," said CARB Chair Lauren Sanchez. "We will use every legal tool available to defend the right to breathe clean air and hold the line on the climate progress.”

BACKGROUND

Fossil fuel-fired power plants in the United States are collectively one of the largest contributors to climate pollution in the world. The power sector is the largest stationary source and second-largest overall source of GHG emissions in the United States, accounting for a quarter of all domestic emissions. Failing to control the sector’s carbon dioxide emissions will exacerbate significant threats facing California, including intensifying and increasing heat waves, wildfires, severe storms, flooding, disease, air pollution, and harm to regional ecosystems. Last year, two of the most destructive fires in state history — the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, both in Los Angeles County — killed at least 30 people, destroyed over 16,000 homes and other structures, and damaged over 37,000 acres. 

Meanwhile, President Trump and the EPA are moving to accelerate climate change and further endanger hundreds of millions of Americans — particularly communities that are disproportionately burdened by environmental harms. This includes the EPA’s illegal attempt to overrule science and abandon the Endangerment Finding that greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles contribute to air pollution that drives climate change and endangers public health and welfare, which has served as the legal basis under the Clean Air Act for limiting climate pollution from vehicles.

Now, in its amendments to the 2024 CPS, EPA repeals — and does not replace — the three main aspects of the CPS: (1) emission guidelines for existing coal, oil, and gas-fired steam generating units, (2) requirements for coal-fired steam generating units undertaking a large modification, and (3) carbon capture and storage-based requirements for new baseload natural gas combustion turbines. In doing so, the rule significantly undermines efforts to address climate change and exposes communities to greater environmental harm by undoing climate regulations on power plants. In the lawsuit, California and the coalition allege that EPA’s rescission of the 2024 CPS violates the Clean Air Act. Specifically, the coalition asks the court to vacate EPA’s illegal rescission of the 2024 CPS and restore EPA’s greenhouse gas emission standards for these power plants. 

In filing today’s lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of New York, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, as well as the Governor of Pennsylvania, the Mayors of New York City and Chicago, and the City and County of Denver.