Dear NRDC Activist,

Thanks to activists like you, NRDC has been gathering thousands of comments for submission to EPA, urging the agency to cut mercury and other toxic air pollutants from power plants.

Last on our critical checklist for cleaning up power plants: climate-warming carbon pollution.

The Biden administration's EPA just proposed new limits that would significantly cut carbon emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants. Cleaning up electricity production is critical: power plants that burn coal and gas are responsible for one-third of U.S. carbon emissions.

Coal companies and the fossil fuel industry will be sure to launch an all-out effort to squash these new safeguards. EPA will soon open a public comment period on this proposal, so NRDC and our allies need to rally the public and to push EPA to make the safeguards even stronger.

Will you get involved and tell EPA to finalize the strongest carbon standards possible?

Existing fossil power plants currently face NO federal limits on their carbon pollution they emit, so EPA's proposed standards are urgently needed.

One of EPA's core responsibilities under the Clean Air Act for decades has been to reduce power plant pollution. The agency has a legal obligation to regulate carbon pollution, which it first attempted in 2015 — but thanks to lawsuits from the coal industry and their allies, those standards never went into effect.

The new proposed standards would set limits on power plants' carbon pollution, and then give states and power companies the flexibility to clean up dirty plants, reduce their use, or retire them in favor of cleaner power from renewable energy.

But EPA can do even more, even faster, by requiring greater reductions from existing gas plants and securing emission reductions from all power plants on a shorter timeline.

Urge EPA to strengthen their proposed limits on carbon pollution from power plants.

These standards will put an end to unlimited carbon pollution from the dirtiest power plants in the nation. They build on the clean energy incentives in the landmark Inflation Reduction Act law that passed in Congress last year that make it cheaper, and easier, to clean up the power sector.

What's needed now is for EPA to implement the strongest possible carbon pollution limits, and implement them quickly, to confront the mounting dangers of the worsening climate crisis and save lives.

Submit a public comment to EPA to finalize strong, durable carbon limits that fight the climate crisis.

Getting behind these new power sector safeguards — and pushing EPA to make them even stronger — is one of the most important actions you can take right now in our ongoing campaign to tackle the climate crisis. So please, act now.

Sincerely,

Lissa Lynch
Director, Federal Legal Group, Climate & Energy Program, NRDC