Mayor Rahm Emanuel today joined a 27-member coalition led by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman to oppose the Trump administration’s proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan, which created the first nationwide emission limits on exiting fossil fuel-burning power plants. The coalition charges that the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal is “a thinly-veiled attempt to provide factual support for its predetermined conclusion to repeal” the Clean Power Plan.

“Putting Scott Pruitt in charge of protecting the environment is like having the fox guard the henhouse,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “The Trump EPA is asleep at the switch, but local leaders are uniting to preserve our natural resources for future generations. Chicago is proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with a coalition of cities and states who believe in clean air, clean water and the promise of a sustainable future.”

In response to EPA’s recent proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan, the coalition submitted comments charging that it is error-filled and unsupported by facts or law. The comments were filed by Attorneys General of New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and DC; the chief legal officers of Boulder, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and South Miami; and Broward County in Florida.

The coalition states that the proposed repeal ignores the compelling scientific underpinnings of the Clean Power Plan and shirks the EPA’s obligations to regulate power plant emissions of existing power plants under the federal Clean Air Act.

In their comments, the coalition compares constrained vision of “the nation’s most protective environmental statute” – the Clean Air Act – newly adopted by the Trump EPA to “a horse with blinders (if not a blindfold)” that “completely ignores the dire threat climate change poses, the interconnected nature of power plants, and the nature of the pollutant (carbon dioxide) that is the subject of regulation.” Specifically, the coalition challenges the proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan on a number of fronts, including that:

Scientific reports issued after the Clean Power Plan was finalized provide further demonstration of the critical need to promptly and sharply cut climate change pollution from power plants and other large sources.

The Clean Air Act is clear in requiring EPA to set limits on carbon pollution from existing power plants. The Trump EPA’s proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plant – without simultaneously replacing it – would violate the Act.

Legal arguments being made by the Trump EPA in support of its proposed repeal were carefully considered and rejected when raised in the Clean Power Plan rulemaking. As nothing has changed to now make these arguments meritorious, the proposed repeal is both contrary to the Clean Air Act, and arbitrary and capricious.

The Trump EPA’s revised analysis on the economic impacts of the Clean Power Plan contains numerous errors, and systematically underestimates the benefits of the Clean Power Plan while exaggerating its costs.

The Clean Power Plan is the culmination of a decade-long effort by partnering states and cities to require mandatory cuts in the emissions of climate change pollution from fossil fuel-burning power plants under the Clean Air Act. The Clean Power Plan, along with the companion rule applicable to new, modified, and reconstructed power plants, will control these emissions by setting limits on the amount of climate change pollution that power plants can emit. The Clean Power Plan is expected to eliminate as much climate change pollution as is emitted by more than 160 million cars a year – or 70 percent of the nation’s passenger cars.

Under Mayor Emanuel’s leadership, Chicago has reduced carbon emission through a number of new initiatives or expansion of existing programs since 2015, ranging from increasing the number of highly energy-efficient buildings, to updating all Chicago streetlights to smart LEDs. Through these and other efforts, the City as well as its residents and businesses save money, conserve resources, and reduce harmful pollution while also creating clean 21st-century, local jobs.

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