Arkansas Responds: Trump Admin. To Repeal Major Health and Climate Protections

Fayetteville, Ark. - This Thursday, the Trump Administration is expected to finalize three decisions that will significantly increase climate-warming and health-harming pollution across America. As it continues to diminish the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to protect our health, Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin will eliminate the 2009 "endangerment finding" that provides a fundamental scientific conclusion that greenhouse gases - like carbon dioxide from coal plants and methane from gas plants - endanger human lives. In the same move, EPA will obliterate its own vehicle emission standards and also roll back a rule that would have reduced mercury and air toxics emissions from power plants. And, last Friday, EPA gave coal plants three extra years to reduce heavy metal water pollution.

In response, Sierra Club in Arkansas issued the following statement.

"Arkansans care deeply about our environment - our rivers, forests, and wildlife - while clearly Trump and Zeldin do not," said Cameron Rackley, organizing intern for the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign. "Coal pollution threatens our climate, air, and water, and it threatens the lives of Arkansans. The Trump Administration's commitment to slashing environmental protections won't just hurt our climate in the long run - it's hurting us now."

Endangerment Finding Background

• By eliminating the Endangerment Finding, the Trump Administration is preparing to finalize its repeal of the Greenhouse Gas Standard for power plants, also known as 111d.
• The 16-year-old finding was based on overwhelming scientific evidence that carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases endanger our health, our economy, and our future by driving global climate change.
• It has been upheld unanimously in federal court. Further, the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 in Massachusetts v. EPAthat the Clean Air Act does cover greenhouse gas pollution.
• The finding gives EPA the statutory authority and obligation to regulate emissions of climate-warming gases from vehicles-the largest source of climate pollution in the United States-and it laid the ground for control of greenhouse gas emissions from other major sources like power plants.
• It was adopted following a rigorous rulemaking process considering thousands of public comments and a massive record of scientific research, which has only grown in the intervening years.

Mercury and Air Toxics Background

• Trump's decision will result in more Arkansans ingesting mercury from breathing in polluted air, consuming contaminated fish from lakes near power plants, eating food grown in mercury-heavy soil, or swimming and recreating in waterways polluted with mercury.
• Mercury is a dangerous neurotoxin that is especially harmful to children and pregnant mothers and can cause developmental delays, seizures, blindness, and other significant symptoms.
• In May 2025, the Trump administration exempted 68 power plants from MATS after soliciting exemption requests from big polluters over email. The Sierra Club suedthe administration for these unlawful exemptions.

Coal Ash Background

• The Trump EPA on Friday extended key deadlines for the Coal Combustion Residuals rule, which is meant to reduce groundwater pollution from the toxic byproduct of burning coal. Wealthy polluters now get several more years to clean up their act.
• This impacts ash landfills that have been closed at retired facilities.
• Owners now have until Feb. 10, 2031, to comply with the requirements and have until February 2032 to close the coal ash units officially, almost three years after the initial deadline of May 2029.

Vehicle Standards Background

• The transportation sector accounts for 28 percentof greenhouse gas emissions-more than any other sector in the US. The clean vehicle standards continue EPA's decades-long effort under the Clean Air Act to set standards that successfully reduce vehicle pollution, improve public health, and mitigate harm from climate change.
• For this latest round of final standards, the EPA engaged in a years-long, multi-stakeholder, comprehensive rulemaking process that engaged industry and the public alike and would collectively avoid over 8 billion tons of carbon emissions.
• Over a four-day public hearing in August 2025, over 97 percent of testifiers opposed the Trump administration's proposal, with hundreds of testifiers detailinghow increased vehicle pollution would personally harm their families. Children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to the toxic pollutants that gas-powered vehicles emit.

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit https://www.sierraclub.org.