Sierra Club Sues Trump Administration for Failing Americans’ Public Health from Gas Plant Pollution - CleanTechnica

The Sierra Club, along with environmental allies, has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The suit challenges the EPA’s inadequate Clean Air Act standards for nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from gas-fired power plants, which contribute to smog and cause serious public health issues such as asthma, cardiovascular problems, hospital visits, missed school and work days, and premature death. The EPA had failed to update NOx pollution limits for 20 years until pressured by environmental groups in 2022, but the Trump-era final rule not only allowed increased NOx pollution from some plants but also completely omitted any analysis of the rule’s impact on public health—a central focus of the Clean Air Act. The Trump administration’s EPA has further announced it will broadly apply this policy of ignoring public health impacts in future Clean Air Act standards, effectively disregarding the benefits of lives saved and illnesses prevented due to reduced air