EPA moves to repeal power plant climate limits

The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it will roll back limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants, a major step by the Trump administration to unwind climate regulations adopted under Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

The action would overturn a 2024 rule that required power plants to use carbon capture technology to control pollution. Under that Biden-era standard, plants would have had to capture and store at least 90% of their carbon pollution by 2032. The EPA also proposed eliminating other greenhouse gas rules for power plants, arguing that the Clean Air Act does not give the agency authority to regulate those emissions as they relate to climate change.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the move during a G20 ministerial meeting on “energy abundance” in Houston. “Americans have been demanding more common sense at federal agencies under President Trump’s leadership,” Zeldin said at a news conference. “That means cutting red tape so we can build new power-generating infrastructure.”

In a separate statement, Zeldin said, “The Trump administration has come in to protect American energy and to make sure you can afford to keep the lights on.”

The EPA estimated the repeal would save power plants more than $300 billion in costs and help “unleash” American energy. The agency also proposed a separate rule, expected to be finalized next year, that could make it harder for future administrations to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

Power plants are the second-largest source of U.S. climate pollution after transportation. Coal, gas and oil-fired power plants account for about one-quarter of the nation’s total climate pollution, according to reports citing federal data and prior assessments. CBS News, citing EPA data from 2023, reported that the power sector produced 31% of carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels.

The rollback follows the EPA’s February repeal of emissions rules for vehicles and its revocation of the 2009 “endangerment finding,” the scientific determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. That finding has underpinned federal regulation of emissions from vehicles, power plants and other industrial sources. Environmental and health groups have already sued over that repeal and said they will also challenge Monday’s power plant action.

“This is full-throated climate denial,” said Patrick Drupp, climate policy director at the Sierra Club. “It’s going to mean more pollution, more extreme weather, higher electricity bills because we’re going to continue to rely on fossil fuels…. This is the administration doubling and tripling down on old fossil-fueled coal and gas.”

Maggie Coulter, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said, “Denying the existence of a quarter of the country’s climate pollution is utterly reckless. It will lead to more lost lives and suffering from intense heatwaves, drastic storms and destructive wildfires, just like those we’ve seen this summer.”

Industry groups welcomed the repeal. “Overturning these examples of EPA overreach will help preserve and strengthen the U.S. coal fleet, protect grid reliability, and shield electricity consumers from higher costs at a time of surging demand from data centers, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing,” said Michelle Bloodworth, a spokesperson for America’s Power, a trade group for the U.S. coal fleet.

The Biden administration said in 2024 that its rule would deliver climate and public health benefits that outweighed compliance costs. It estimated that in 2035 alone, the rule would prevent 1,200 premature deaths, 360,000 cases of asthma symptoms and 47,000 lost workdays. An Associated Press analysis last year found that the broader rules targeted by the Trump EPA could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they remained in effect.

Legal fights could take years. Meghan Greenfield, a partner at Jenner & Block who oversaw the EPA’s Supreme Court docket for rulemaking during the Biden administration, said appeals move slowly. “It’s not clear to me at this point that this repeal, the one that’s being finalized today, will be before the Supreme Court by the end of this administration,” she said.