In response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal today of its Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELG) rule, Evergreen Action Power Sector Policy Lead Charles Harper released the following statement:

“It’s exciting to see EPA taking an important step today to limit toxic water pollutants from power plants. The proposed ELG rule reverses Trump-era rollbacks and reinstates strong regulations that are critical to protecting frontline communities from toxic heavy metals and other water pollution from coal power plants. Coal plants currently dump millions of tons of toxic metals like lead, mercury, and arsenic into American waterways every year. We’re happy to see EPA working to get this rule strengthened while prioritizing the health and safety of communities that are most impacted by toxic water pollution from coal plants.

“The ELG rule is an important tool for EPA—and it’s just one amidst a suite of robust regulatory tools that EPA has to ramp down pollution from fossil fuel power plants. In order to best protect our nation’s health and welfare, especially that of Black, Brown, Indigenous, and frontline communities that are most at risk, EPA must work to quickly advance their full suite of critical power sector pollution regulations. We look forward to EPA finalizing this rule and continuing their work to comprehensively tackle deadly power sector pollution.”

Evergreen previously released Falling Further Behind: A Report Card on EPA’s Progress on 10 Important Power Sector Rules, highlighting EPA’s progress on 10 power sector rules that are critical to reining in the toxic power sector pollution that harms frontline communities and exacerbates the climate crisis. Additionally, you can read more about how we can transition our power sector to be 100% clean power in our paper, “Powering Toward 100 Percent Clean Power by 2035.”

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