Attorney General Bonta Opposes Trump Administration’s Revised Attempt to Eliminate Climate Pollution Limits on Power Plants

Trump is making pollution great again (and again, and again…)

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined a coalition of 27 states, counties, and cities in opposing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) supplemental proposal to rescind its 2015 finding that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil fuel power plants drive climate change and endanger public health and welfare, which would eliminate and prevent regulation of these emissions. The 2015 finding, known as the Endangerment Finding for power plants, acknowledged that fossil fuel power plant GHG emissions significantly contribute to the pollution that is changing the climate and triggered EPA’s duty to set limits on those emissions. EPA proposed rescinding the finding on different grounds last year, at the same time it proposed repealing the Biden Administration’s GHG emissions standards for certain fossil fuel-fired power plants. Although EPA finalized the repeal of the Biden-era emissions standards, it did not finalize its proposed recission of the Endangerment Finding, instead choosing to supplement its proposal with arguments borrowed from EPA’s rescission of the Endangerment Finding for motor vehicles that it finalized in February 2026. If EPA finalizes the supplemental proposal, it will effectively abandon Section 111 of the Clean Air Act — the statutory tool that speaks directly to those emissions, as affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA — and preclude future federal regulation of fossil fuel power plant GHG emissions. Attorney General Bonta and the coalition urge EPA to withdraw the proposed rule and preserve its ability to use the Clean Air Act to limit power plant greenhouse gas emissions.

“The President can’t keep burying his head in the sand and ignoring the truth. Climate change is real, it’s caused by greenhouse gas emissions, and decades of settled science warned us this was coming. This proposal is a dangerous retreat from science, the law, and common sense,” said Attorney General Bonta. “EPA’s plan to rescind the Endangerment Finding for power plants puts Trump’s Big Oil friends before the American people, who are already dealing with the impacts of destructive wildfires, scorching heat, and severe floods. That’s why we’re opposing this proposed rule and urging EPA to withdraw it.”

Fossil fuel-fired power plants in the United States are one of the largest contributors to climate pollution in the world — if these power plants were a country, they would be the sixth-highest emitter on the planet. The power sector is the largest stationary source and second-largest overall source of GHG emissions in the United States, accounting for a quarter of all domestic emissions. Failing to control the sector’s GHG emissions will exacerbate significant threats facing California, including intensifying and increasing heat waves, wildfires, severe storms, flooding, disease, air pollution, and harm to regional ecosystems. Last year, two of the most destructive fires in state history — the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, both in Los Angeles County — killed at least 30 people, destroyed over 16,000 homes and other structures, and damaged over 37,000 acres. Just recently, record-breaking tides — amplified by sea level rise and ocean warming — have inundated streets and flooded homes along Southern California’s coastline. 

Meanwhile, President Trump and EPA have taken many actions that accelerate climate change and further endanger hundreds of millions of Americans — particularly communities that are disproportionately burdened by environmental harms. These actions include the illegal repeals of the Endangerment Finding for motor vehicles and of the 2024 GHG emission standards for fossil fuel-power plants, and now this attempt at withdrawing the Endangerment Finding for power plants. 

In today’s comment letter, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition assert that:

• The Clean Air Act directs EPA to regulate GHG emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants under Section 111, and the U.S. Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit have interpreted Section 111 to effectuate this plain meaning. EPA cannot rewrite the Clean Air Act or overrule the U.S. Supreme Court, and EPA’s arguments for doing so — including its invocation of the major questions doctrine — all fail.
• Futility is an impermissible reason not to regulate GHG emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants, particularly given that the U.S. power sector’s GHG emissions are the sixth largest source of GHG emissions in the world.
• EPA’s supplemental proposal is arbitrary and capricious because EPA failed to adequately explain its change in position or to consider serious reliance interests, failed to quantify or monetize GHG, ozone, and particulate matter impacts, and failed to consider impacts of the proposal on grid reliability or electricity affordability. 

In submitting the comment letter, Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of New York, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, along with the Chief Legal Officers of the City of Chicago, the City and County of Denver, the City of New York, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

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