Significant Wins for Environment & Health in New Biden Administration Rules May 1, 2024

Contact: Isabella Javidan, ijavidan@psr.org, 612-812-3231

Physicians for Social Responsibility applauds the Biden Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Department of Agriculture for their recently finalized rules that will help to improve the health of communities nationwide. PSR and our members submitted comments on four of these rules to ensure that they strongly protected public health. 

Links to our statements on these rules can be found below:

• EPA Greenhouse Gas Standards and Guidelines for Fossil Fuel-Fired Power Plants
• EPA Mercury and Air Toxics Standards
• EPA Legacy Coal Combustion Residuals Surface Impoundments and CCR Management Units
• HUD/USDA Adoption of Energy Efficiency Standards for New Construction of HUD- and USDA-Financed Housing

The finalization of these rules is the culmination of years of work to regulate carbon emissions, toxic air pollutants, coal ash, and energy efficiency standards for federally subsidized homes. These rules are an important starting point to ensure communities across the country have clean air, healthy homes and a liveable planet. This is not the end of the road for several of these rules that will likely be challenged by the fossil fuel industry. PSR will promote the public health benefits associated with each rule and defend them as needed.

We thank the Administration and its agencies for their diligent work and look forward to working together in the future on forthcoming regulations in the interest of public health and the climate.