Sierra Club Sues Trump Administration for Failing Americans’ Public Health from Gas Plant Pollution

Lawsuit challenges weak protections from smog and EPA's refusal to factor public health in future decision making

Washington, D.C. - Today, the Sierra Club and its environmental group allies took the Trump administration to federal court, suing the Environmental Protection Agency over its woefully inadequate Clean Air Act standards for gas-fired power plants' emissions of nitrogen oxides. This pollution, also known as NOx, is the primary ingredient of smog, and causes asthma attacks, cardiovascular conditions, hospital visits, missed school and work days, and premature death. The Sierra Club filed its lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The EPA had failed to update the NOx pollution limits for 20 years until Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Fund forced the agency to do so in a separate 2022 lawsuit. While the 2024 proposed NOx limits required the best control technology at many units, the final Trump rule largely scraps those requirements and does virtually nothing to protect the American public from pollution. In fact, the Trump standards actually allow more NOx pollution from some plants compared to the standards that had been in place for two decades.

To make matters worse, the final Trump rule entirely omits any analysis of the rule's impact on public health, which is the overwhelming focus of the Clean Air Act. Trump's EPA has also announced that it will broadly apply this policy going forward. That means that in issuing future Clean Air Act standards, EPA will now ignore the value of lives saved, hospital visits avoided, and lost work and school days prevented due to air pollution-related illnesses.

In response, Sierra Club Senior Attorney Andres Restrepo issued the following statement:

"The Trump Administration's decision to ignore the deadly health impacts of its Clean Air Act regulations is not only unconscionable, it is patently illegal. Their gas plant standards do nothing to protect the American public from smog-forming NOx pollution, and we are taking them to court because families and communities deserve clean air, a safe environment, and a government that cares about their health and wellbeing.

"When Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin announced that the EPA would no longer consider the toll that gas plant pollution imposes on Americans' health and wallets, they were saying out loud what we have always known: the Trump administration does not not care about what is in our best interest, only what is the best interest of fossil fuel companies. That's why we're taking them to court, and it's why we expect to win."

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.