Nurses Condemn EPA Repeal of Carbon Pollution Standards for Power Plants

(Washington, DC) – On Sept. 14th 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the repeal of the 2024 Power Plant Regulations. The 2024 Power Plant standards were expected to deliver substantial public health benefits by reducing carbon pollution, fine particulate matter, mercury, and other hazardous pollutants. According to EPA projections, the carbon standards alone could have prevented up to 1,200 premature deaths, 870 hospital and emergency department visits, 1,900 new asthma cases, 360,000 episodes of asthma symptoms, and tens of thousands of missed school and workdays in 2035. These protections were also in place to safeguard drinking water, and provide particularly important benefits for children, pregnant people, and communities disproportionately burdened by power plant pollution.

In response to the proposal, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments Executive Director Katie Huffling, DNP, RN, CNM, FAAN issued the following statement:

“The EPA’s decision to repeal the 2024 Power Plant standards threatens public health, deepens climate-related health risks, and places an unjust burden on already overexposed communities.” Repealing these protections will not make families safer or healthier. It disregards the scientific evidence and will prolong dependence on polluting fossil-fuel infrastructure while shifting the health and financial costs onto children, older adults, pregnant people, people with chronic illnesses, and communities that have endured decades of disproportionate pollution. Nurses call on federal leaders to restore strong, science-based safeguards and accelerate a just transition to clean, reliable energy that protects health.

“The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments is committed to continue working with nurses, health professionals, community partners, and policymakers to defend science-based environmental protections and advance energy policies that place human health, equity, and a livable climate at their center.”

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The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments is the only national nursing organization focused solely on the intersection of health and the environment. The mission of the Alliance is to support nurses in promoting planetary health and equity globally by educating and leading the nursing profession, advancing research, incorporating planet-safe practice, and influencing policy. http://enviRN.org