EPA's Proposed Power Plant Emissions Standards are an Important Step Toward Reducing Climate Pollution Nationwide

Statement from the Georgetown Climate Center

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s new proposed standards on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric generating plants are an important step toward reducing climate pollution, and a needed step towards achieving ambitious state and national climate targets, according to an initial review of the proposal by the Georgetown Climate Center. Coal and natural gas-fired power plants are responsible for 25% of U.S. emissions of climate-heating carbon pollution.

The draft standards released today propose pollution limits on new and existing fossil fuel-fired power plants under EPA’s longstanding authority to reduce air pollution under the Clean Air Act. The proposed standards for new natural gas-fired generating units and existing coal-fired units are projected to reduce CO2 emissions by 617 million metric tons through 2042.

Under the Clean Air Act, state governments have key roles in implementing and enforcing the power plant emissions standards. For the existing-source standards proposed today, states are responsible for developing plans to meet the emissions reduction requirements set by EPA, and have flexibility to pursue approaches that best fit the needs of their communities.

“Achieving the reductions in pollution needed to address the climate crisis will require action across state, federal, and local governments,” said Kate Zyla, Executive Director of the Georgetown Climate Center at Georgetown Law. “EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas standards under the Clean Air Act build on the historic federal funding for pollution-reduction technologies in the Inflation Reduction Act, and accelerate pollution reduction from fossil fuel-fired power plants. As EPA works to finalize these standards, it will be important to make sure the approach is informed by the insights of communities and states that are leading on climate change, and that state officials are prepared to help implement the standards effectively and equitably.”

About the Georgetown Climate Center

The Georgetown Climate Center (GCC) was established in 2009 at the request of state leaders who recognized the need to strengthen connections between climate policies and policymakers at all levels of government and to help policymakers develop aligned strategies that work together to address climate change. Part of Georgetown Law, GCC aims to help good ideas make their way into laws and regulations, so we focus on helping federal, state, and local leaders with the challenges of practical, real-world policymaking. GCC serves as a resource to state, federal, and local policymakers who are working to develop policies to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and become more resilient to the effects of climate change, providing legal, policy, and process support to inform policy development.