FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 15, 2026
Contact: Ashley Sullivan, ashley.sulivan@weact.org, 1 (917) 837-1183
WASHINGTON – Environmental justice groups in the Clean Air for the Long Haul cohort condemn the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) latest actions to finalize the repeal of the 2024 carbon pollution standards for existing coal and new gas power plants, and supplemental proposed rulemaking denying its authority to regulate climate emissions from power plants, announced yesterday. These efforts – part of the Agency’s planned rollbacks of over 30 vital health and environmental protections – will add to the harm vulnerable communities of color and lower income people already face.
“For decades, grassroots organizations and members of Clean Air for the Long Haul have fought hard to ensure health-protective carbon standards for frontline communities which bear the brunt of fossil fuel pollution and the catastrophic damage of the climate crisis.” – Beto Lugo Martinez, Executive Director, RiSE4EJ
While the cohort did not fully support the approach taken in the 2024 standards, EPA still has a legal duty and responsibility grounded in established science to protect our health and safety by regulating climate and air pollution. According to the EPA’s own data, power plants are the second largest source of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fueling the climate crisis, while also producing hazardous air pollution linked to severe health impacts, including asthma, heart disease, cancer, and premature death. The climate, health, and economic impacts of fossil fuel power plant pollution are growing and unequal, reflected in world-record-breaking heat in August, soaring energy costs, and millions of people of color breathing dirty air. Despite these realities, Trump’s EPA continues to attack climate and clean air protections – including the repeal of the Endangerment Finding for vehicles – advancing an agenda that prioritizes polluter profits over the health and lives of overburdened environmental justice communities.
“EPA’s repeal of the 2024 standards and attempts to deny its authority to regulate carbon emissions from power plants is unjustifiable – both under the law and morally. It is a failure that falls hardest on environmental justice communities living on the frontlines of pollution and the climate crisis. Every rollback by the Trump EPA is a deliberate choice that perpetuates the cycle of communities of color and low-income neighborhoods across the country being treated as sacrifice zones by the fossil fuel industry. It means more of our children with asthma, more parents lost too soon, higher energy costs, and more of our homes and cities devastated by preventable disasters.”
“ We need strong protections, not policies that recklessly upend climate action and put polluter profits over our lives. WE ACT for Environmental Justice and the Clean Air for the Long Haul cohort will not stop fighting to hold EPA accountable to its mission of protecting human health and the environment.” – Anastasia Gordon, Director of Federal Policy, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
“The EPA rolling back carbon standards and weakening the Endangerment Finding [for power plants] is an abandonment of duty to communities across the country and a direct assault on the health and lives of communities of color and low-income communities, folks that work hard every day to provide for their families. That’s compounded here in North Carolina with grants to Duke Energy for coal plants from the Trump administration of $28.4 million and $34 million to upgrade the Roxboro plant (Person County) and the Belews Creek plant (Stokes County), respectively, as Duke Energy seeks to raise rates on customers across the state. The federal government also invested $129 million in Duke Energy in June to scrap offshore wind production on North Carolina’s coast. The folks of North Carolina and across the country don’t deserve to pay for bad decisions and investments with their health and lives. We urge the EPA to reverse course and stand with communities.” – Ayo Wilson, West End Revitalization Association Executive Director
“For too long, Latino and working-class communities have paid the price of the climate crisis through dirtier air, dangerous heat, higher energy costs, and worsening health, while fossil fuel companies continue to profit. Repealing these standards demonstrates, once again, that this administration is choosing to protect polluters’ profits while asking our families to absorb the costs in higher bills, more pollution, and poorer health.”
“Latino communities should not be treated as sacrifice zones for the fossil fuel industry. We will not accept a future where polluters get a free pass and our families are left with the bill. We will continue to make our voice heard and fight for the health and wellbeing of our communities.” – Irene Burga, Climate Justice and Clean Air Director at GreenLatinos
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Clean Air For The Long Haul, a nationwide coalition of environmental justice groups, coordinates federal rulemaking campaigns, centering overburdened communities, to reduce air pollution from power plants, cars, and trucks. The coalition seeks to catalyze the environmental justice movement through federal emissions reductions targeting United States power and transportation sectors. Coalition member organizations include: Duwamish River Community Coalition, Green Door Initiative, GreenLatinos, PODER Austin, RiSE4EJ, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, West End Revitalization Association, and Wisconsin/Michigan Green Muslims.