Sierra Club and Allies to Defend Clean Power Plan in Court from Trump Administration’s Attacks

The Sierra Club and a coalition of allies that support the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan and Carbon Pollution Standards for Power Plants filed motions with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals opposing the efforts of the Trump Administration and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to put the litigation on hold and turn back the clock on years of work to achieve safeguards to cut carbon pollution, save lives, and protect the communities most vulnerable to the climate crisis and air pollution.

In response, Joanne Spalding, Chief Climate Counsel for the Sierra Club, released the following statement:

“We are going to challenge the Trump Administration’s dangerous assault on the health of our communities at every turn, in the streets and in the courts. Rolling back the Clean Power Plan and the Carbon Pollution Standards would threaten the lives of thousands of Americans every year solely to squeeze out more profits for corporate polluters. The law requires the Environmental Protection Agency to protect the public from carbon pollution, and the Clean Power Plan and Carbon Pollution Standards were issued to comply with that duty and achieve that purpose. However, the Trump Administration is taking a deeply-misguided view and attacking public health standards at every turn instead of doing its job to safeguard every family and every community across the country. The Clean Power Plan and the Carbon Pollution Standards were crafted after years of advocacy and are the result of one of the most-extensive stakeholder engagement processes in history, and we intend to take every step we can to ensure these rules are upheld and implemented.”

“Environmental groups have been advocating for standards to curb carbon pollution from power plants in order to protect the health of the public for nearly fifteen years. Scott Pruitt and the Trump Administration are trying to freeze the litigation as a first step to undo those hard-won protections.  If the EPA will no longer defend these rules, we will.”