House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition members are encouraging the Environmental Protection Agency to adopt standards for existing gas-fired powerplants.
SEEC Reps. Kathy Castor of Florida and Mike Levin of California along with the SEEC Co-Chairs Reps. Doris Matsui of California, Mike Quigley of Illinois and Paul Tonko of New York led a letter to EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan.
The five members were joined by 81 of their House colleagues in signing the letter, which followed March 2023 and July 2023 letters that the SEEC leaders sent in support of strong limits for fossil fuel-fired power plant pollution through EPA’s authority under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act.
“We appreciate EPA’s commitment to setting meaningful and comprehensive pollution standards for our nation’s power plants, and respectfully urge you to adopt final rules on existing gas-fired power plants that include the strongest possible standards to limit greenhouse gases and other pollutants,” the members wrote. “In particular, these rules must take a comprehensive approach to the existing gas fleet by addressing all types of gas plants and their cumulative impacts, as well as the full spectrum of air pollution. Further, we urge you to conduct robust stakeholder engagement as part of this process—including among impacted workers and frontline and environmental justice communities.”
According to the SEEC, the EPA has made immense progress in the last four years toward securing a more equitable and climate-friendly future of Americans.
“We look forward to working with you to build on this momentum and securing the strongest possible standards to limit pollution from existing gas power plants,” the members wrote.
In April, the EPA finalized impactful greenhouse gas emissions standards for new gas and existing coal powerplants that will curb 1.38 billion metric tons of carbon pollution through 2047 and provide hundreds of billions of dollars in health and climate benefits. The agency is now taking major steps in 2024 to build on the progress made by advancing emissions standards for existing gas power plants, a major source of climate-warming pollution and air toxics that threaten human health.
The SEEC is a coalition of 98 members of the U.S. House of Representatives founded in January 2009 to be a focused, active and effective coalition for advancing policies that address climate change, promote clean energy innovation and domestic manufacturing, develop renewable energy resources, create family-sustaining clean jobs, protect our nation’s air, water, and natural environment and promote environmental justice.
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Rebecca Barnabi
