WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision today to repeal its power plant carbon pollution standards and strip the agency's authority to limit power plant pollution in the future will “undermine investment in affordable clean energy technology and U.S. manufacturing, making electricity more expensive for businesses and everyday Americans and hurting America’s global competitiveness,” Ceres said in a statement.
“For more than a decade, the EPA’s power plant greenhouse gas standards have driven American innovation and created a stable business environment for investment in homegrown technologies that strengthen America’s energy system. Today’s decision will send us backward,” added Zach Friedman, senior director, federal policy, at Ceres. “Major companies, including power providers, support strong, consistent standards that protect public health and bring down costs by providing the certainty necessary for the private sector to invest in clean power technologies and fuels.”
A 2024 analysis by Ceres found that EPA pollution standards have historically driven technological innovation while providing enough flexibility to industry to allow for reasonable timelines for deployment and compliance. As electricity demand and energy prices rise, businesses, utilities, and investors need certainty to continue deploying in affordable, homegrown clean energy.
The EPA is also attempting to roll back its 2009 Endangerment Finding, which underpins federal climate change pollution rules. Together with today’s announcement and moves to rescind California’s waivers to set its own pollution rules under the Clean Air Act, the administration is moving to eviscerate crucial protections across all sectors of the economy.
EPA has long held the authority to regulate harmful pollutants and there is significant U.S. business support for the certainty and economic benefits that regulation provides:
In 2022, 15 leading companies filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject efforts to curb EPA’s ability to regulate climate pollution from power plants.
In 2023, dozens of leading businesses and power providers called for the EPA to finalize robust power plant standards to maximize the climate, public health, and economic benefits from reduced pollution.
In 2025, companies, investors, and trade groups across the economy urged EPA not to repeal the 2009 Endangerment Finding during the agency’s public comment period on the proposed rollback.
This robust business support emphasizes that these efforts undercut one of the most innovative sources of economic growth and affordability of the past two decades — clean energy — and will put the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage. Ceres encourages more companies and investors to voice their opposition to the EPA’s harmful actions to our economy, including by signing onto to a business amicus brief supporting the challenge to the repeal of the Endangerment Finding in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
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About Ceres
Ceres is a nonprofit advocacy organization working to accelerate the transition to a cleaner, more just, and resilient economy. With data-driven research and expert analysis, we inspire investors and companies to act on the world's sustainability challenges and advocate for market and policy solutions. Together, our efforts transform industries, unlock new business opportunities, and foster innovation and job growth – proving that sustainability is the bottom line. For more information, visit ceres.org.