Twenty-one states and three cities sue EPA over repeal of power-plant emissions rules

New York Attorney General Letitia James is leading a coalition of states and cities in a challenge to the Trump administration’s decision to repeal emissions rules for power plants.

Twenty-one states, the District of Columbia and three major cities filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday, submitting a petition to the court and an intent-to-sue letter to the Environmental Protection Agency.

New York leads the state plaintiffs, which include Pennsylvania. New York City, Chicago and Denver are the cities in the case, and the coalition brings together Democratic attorneys general, governors and mayors.

The case targets the administration’s abandonment of climate rules at the nation’s most polluting power plants. Those rules required coal- and gas-fired plants to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

The rules had threatened to constrain administration plans to expand coal generation and increase gas-powered electricity production without those limits.

The dispute reaches a central part of US climate policy. The power sector remains the largest source of climate pollution, and the repeal is a major setback for the long-running effort to decarbonise the power grid.

The plaintiffs say the removal of one of the country’s most significant climate protections will put the nation back decades and worsen the climate crisis.

James said: “Future generations are going to pay the price for our federal government's callous disregard for Americans' health and the environment.”

She also said: “This administration's insistence on giving the nation's biggest polluters a free pass will set our country back decades in the fight against climate change.”