News · Energy and environment · National (US)
The agency says removing current and remaining greenhouse gas standards could cut power plant compliance costs by hundreds of billions of dollars.
Key takeaways
President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency is moving to dismantle greenhouse gas limits established for power plants under former President Joe Biden. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency is repealing most of the requirements and has proposed eliminating the standards that would remain.
The changes target Biden’s 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards. Zeldin said those standards went beyond the EPA’s legal authority and imposed requirements that power plants could not meet without closing.
The EPA estimates that repealing most of the rules would reduce compliance costs by billion. It projects another billion in savings if the remaining standards are eliminated. Those two figures total billion, although the administration’s overall estimate cited by Fox News is up to billion.
The EPA says the policy is intended to expand electricity production from coal and natural gas. It expects coal production for the power sector to rise tenfold under the changes.
Zeldin said the repeal would protect reliable energy supplies and lower electricity prices. Energy Secretary Chris Wright also backed the action, arguing that coal and natural gas provide steady power when wind and solar generation are unavailable.
The EPA said its modeling shows that greenhouse gas emissions from power plants do not materially affect global climate change. It also said potential public health harms are too uncertain and indirect to connect specifically to the U.S. power sector.
The agency is treating the rules in two parts: repealing most existing greenhouse gas requirements while proposing to remove the rest. The proposed portion must move through the federal rulemaking process before it can take effect.
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