Today (Aug 8th) is the last day to submit comments to encourage the EPA to reduce pollution from power plants. The EPA has proposed much needed and long overdue rules to limit carbon pollution and toxic mercury from fossil-fueled power plants. These protections will lead to cleaner air, healthier communities, and a safer climate for years to come.

But polluters are trying to rollback these protections. We need your help to urge the EPA to finalize the strongest protections as quickly as possible.

This is important — the power sector is one of the country’s leading sources of climate-harming pollution, but up until now, the industry’s pollution levels have gone almost entirely unchecked. In North Carolina, Duke Energy spent over $840,000 last year lobbying the NC Legislature to prevent this level of pollution restriction. If EPA passes these rules, Duke Energy will be held accountable.

The EPA has an obligation under the Clean Air Act to set and enforce limits on these harmful pollutants. The EPA also recently proposed tighter standards for reducing toxic mercury pollution from power plants, which would protect children’s developing brains and make fish safer for them to eat.

While these each would be a big step forward, we still need your help to make these new protections a reality and as strong as possible. The coal and gas industries are lobbying the Biden administration hard against these new pollution limits. Unless the environmental movement demands the strongest possible protections, polluters could succeed in weakening or delaying new protections altogether.

Take action today: tell the EPA that you support the strongest possible protections against pollution from fossil-fueled power plants. We’re aiming to deliver 10,000 comments from environmentalists like you before the public comment deadline.

New protections are especially important for frontline communities that have been exposed to pollution from nearby power plants for far too long, with tragic health consequences.

That’s why we need your help to ensure that the EPA requires power plants to adopt clean solutions that don’t further expose communities to harmful pollution and engages with and listens to communities most exposed to power plant pollution in formulating the final rules. The EPA’s actions must be consistent with President Biden’s climate and environmental justice commitments.

Ty McFarland (They/Them)
Director of Communications
NC League of Conservation Voters