FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 9, 2025
CONTACT:
Aaron Bharucha, Public Relations Associate
(509) 429-1699 and epn-press@environmentalprotectionnetwork.org
Environmental Protection Network Rebukes EPA’s Attempt to Abandon Carbon Pollution Standards
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Environmental Protection Network forcefully opposes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed repeal of the Carbon Pollution Standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants—an action that would inflict lasting harm on public health, accelerate climate destabilization, and violate EPA’s statutory obligations.
Speaking on behalf of the Environmental Protection Network at today’s public hearing, Larry Weinstock, a 37-year EPA veteran and Adjunct Professor at George Washington Law School, provided expert testimony underscoring the legal and scientific failures embedded in the proposal. His testimony reflects the broader consensus of the Environmental Protection Network’s nationwide network of over 650 former EPA professionals and expert staff committed to upholding science-based, equitable environmental governance.
“Repealing the Carbon Pollution Standards as EPA now proposes to do would do drastic harm to public health and the environment by depriving Americans of air pollution reductions that would provide significant public health benefit to Americans across the country,” the Environmental Protection Network testified.
According to EPA’s own analysis, repealing the Carbon Pollution Standards could result in up to:
- 1,200 premature deaths
- 870 hospital and emergency room visits
- 1,900 new cases of asthma
- 360,000 asthma symptom incidents
- 48,000 missed school days
- 57,000 lost workdays
The Environmental Protection Network sharply criticized the legal and scientific rationale underlying the proposal, asserting, “The Proposal’s main justification—that power plants are not contributing significantly to the pollution fueling climate change—defies common sense and the real world facts. It is arbitrary and capricious—both as a matter of common sense and of law.”
Addressing EPA’s assertion that the U.S. power sector’s greenhouse gas emissions are not “significant,” the Environmental Protection Network affirmed: “U.S. EGUs emit more GHGs than all of the countries in the world, with the exception of three—China, India, and Russia. Again—only three countries in the world emit more GHGs than the U.S. EGUs.”
Further, the Environmental Protection Network charged the agency with violating its statutory responsibilities by failing to offer a lawful justification for its decision: “In light of this, the agency gives away its utter inability to justify the proposed repeal by claiming that it need not adopt or apply objective criteria in defining ‘significant contribution.’ With that claim, the proposal all but confesses that the agency’s action is arbitrary and capricious—both as a matter of common sense and as a matter of law.”
In closing, the Environmental Protection Network delivered a pointed indictment of the agency’s rationale: “EPA says that this action is consistent with ‘this Administration’s priority […] secured by using fossil fuels to generate power.’ However, EPA does not show how increased fossil fuel use will improve either public health or welfare […]. It is not clear what the administration’s actual objective is, but EPA is acting like the actual objective is to increase pollution.”
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ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION NETWORK
Founded in 2017, the Environmental Protection Network harnesses the expertise of more than 650 former EPA career staff and confirmation-level appointees from Democratic and Republican administrations to provide the unique perspective of former scientists and regulators with decades of historical and subject matter knowledge.