The California attorney general’s office said Attorney General and the California Air Resources Board joined a coalition of 25 states, counties and cities in filing a lawsuit on Oct. 1, 2026, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit seeking to vacate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s rescission of parts of the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards.
The release said the EPA’s amendments repeal three main elements of the 2024 rule: emission guidelines for existing coal, oil and gas‑fired steam generating units; requirements for coal units that undergo large modifications; and carbon capture and storage–based requirements for new baseload natural gas turbines.
The attorney general’s office framed the change as a public‑health and climate rollback; the release said the power sector is the largest stationary source and the second‑largest overall source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and that undoing the standards will expose communities to greater environmental harm.
The release cited recent California fires to illustrate climate harms; it said the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire together killed at least 30 people, destroyed more than 16,000 homes and other structures, and damaged over 37,000 acres.
California and the coalition allege in the filing that EPA’s rescission violates the Clean Air Act and asked the court to vacate EPA’s action and restore the 2024 greenhouse gas standards; the attorney general’s office said the suit challenges the rescission as illegal.
The coalition, the release said, includes the attorneys general of New York, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, plus the District of Columbia; it also includes the Governor of Pennsylvania, the mayors of New York City and Chicago, and the City and County of Denver.
“While California is focused on protecting the environment and the health of our loved ones, President remains hell‑bent on protecting the pockets of the fossil fuel industry,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in the release. “Rolling back emission standards for power plants is an affront to the American people.”
CARB Chair said in the release, “Today California is challenging the federal government's latest public health rollback that abandons science‑based limits on power plant pollution. We will use every legal tool available to defend the right to breathe clean air and hold the line on the climate progress.”
State
Rob Bonta
Attorney General · Democrat
Named 3 times in this story.
Portrait: Official portrait
Federal
Donald J. Trump
President of the United States · Republican
Named once in this story.
Portrait: Daniel Torok / The White House (public domain)
State
Lauren Sanchez
Chair, California Air Resources Board
Named once in this story.
Sources & methodology
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