A coalition of 21 states and four cities filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the Trump administration’s decision to repeal federal limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. The suit was submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by mostly Democratic-led governments, spearheaded by New York, arguing that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acted unlawfully in rolling back regulations enacted during the Biden administration.
The contested rules, introduced under President Biden, aimed to drastically reduce heat-trapping emissions from coal-fired power plants by 2039 and impose caps on emissions from new natural gas plants. The electricity sector is the United States’ second-largest source of carbon dioxide emissions, a leading contributor to climate change. The Biden-era regulations were designed to require coal plants to either eliminate nearly all their greenhouse gas pollution or shut down by the target date.
At the time, these regulations faced legal challenges from utilities and Republican-controlled states, led by West Virginia, which claimed the restrictions were unattainable and could jeopardize grid reliability. In March, the EPA under the Trump administration announced it was rescinding these power plant rules, further asserting that emissions of greenhouse gases from power plants do not pose a danger to human health or the environment. This reversal also called into question the EPA’s authority to regulate such emissions under the Clean Air Act.
Should the courts uphold the Trump administration’s position, it could limit the ability of future administrations to enforce similar climate regulations on power plants. The states and cities involved contend that the EPA’s rollback ignored substantial evidence regarding the health and environmental impacts of greenhouse gases and described the repeal as “arbitrary and capricious,” seeking to have it overturned.
Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, criticized the administration for “giving the nation’s biggest polluters a free pass,” warning that dismantling the rules would impede national efforts to address climate change. Alongside New York, the lawsuit includes attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and officials from the District of Columbia, as well as the governor of Pennsylvania and mayors of New York City, Chicago, and Denver. All plaintiffs are Democrats.
In addition to the lawsuit over the repeal, the coalition notified the EPA of its intent to sue for failing to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing natural gas power plants. While the Biden administration did not impose limits on these facilities either, the plaintiffs argue the EPA has an obligation to do so, citing concerns about harmful pollution impacts on low-income communities.
The reversal of power plant rules is part of a broader rollback by the Trump administration’s EPA, which has also eliminated vehicle tailpipe emissions standards and eased restrictions on climate-warming chemicals used in refrigeration and air conditioning. Most notably, the agency repealed the “endangerment finding,” a scientific determination from 2009 that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare—the legal foundation for many climate regulations.
This repeal has itself been the subject of legal challenge. In March, a group of Democratic-led states including Massachusetts, California, New York, and Connecticut filed a separate lawsuit arguing the EPA provided no new scientific evidence to justify overturning the endangerment finding. That case remains pending in court.
An EPA spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the latest lawsuit.