EPA repeals Biden-era greenhouse gas limits on coal and gas power plants

On Monday the EPA repealed Biden-era greenhouse gas limits on coal- and gas-fired power plants.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the repeal at a G20 energy ministerial in Houston.

The EPA proposed rescinding remaining power-plant greenhouse gas standards in a way that could block future administrations from restoring them.

The EPA said repealing the 2024 power-plant rule would save more than $300 billion.

The EPA said the repeal would help unleash American energy.

Zeldin said the Trump administration came to protect American energy and keep the lights on.

Zeldin said the Obama and Biden administrations had waged a war on coal and domestic energy.

Zeldin said Biden-era standards sought to suffocate the economy in order to protect the environment.

Zeldin said Biden-era actions were intended to regulate the coal industry out of existence.

The 2024 Biden rule required coal plants to capture smokestack carbon or shut down, and set strict limits for new gas plants.

The EPA argued greenhouse gases from fossil-fuel power plants do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution under the Clean Air Act.

The EPA said potential public health harms are too uncertain to tie specifically to the U.S. power sector.

The EPA said greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas plants are a small and decreasing part of global emissions.

EPA officials said utilities could decide based on cost instead of being required to shut plants.

Environmental groups said they would challenge the repeal in court.

The EPA first proposed the repeal last year.

Fossil-fuel power plants account for about a quarter of U.S. climate pollution, second to transportation.

In February the EPA revoked the 2009 endangerment finding that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare.

In 2007 the Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA held that the EPA must regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

In 2022 the Supreme Court limited the EPA’s authority to use the Clean Air Act to restructure the electricity system.

An Associated Press analysis last year found the targeted rules could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion a year.

The AP analysis found even a partial rollback would mean more smog, mercury, lead, and fine particles that can lodge in lungs.

Environmental Defense Fund general counsel Vickie Patton said tearing down the power-plant climate protections would have enormous costs for families’ health and safety.

Patton said Americans are already suffering from record heat, more dangerous floods and storms, and rising insurance costs.

Patton said the EPA has a legal duty to protect the public from harmful pollution and that clean technologies are widely available.

America’s Power CEO Michelle Bloodworth said lifting the rule would protect grid reliability and shield consumers from higher costs amid data-center demand.

Coal-industry groups denounced the Biden rule as EPA overreach and urged its repeal.

The power-plant rule is among nearly three dozen environmental regulations Zeldin targeted in early 2025.

Zeldin called that 2025 package the most consequential day of deregulation in American history.

The Trump administration withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord for a second time.

Trump has called climate change a con job or hoax.

U.S. gasoline prices topped $4.31 a gallon, more than a dollar higher than a year earlier.

EPA officials said separately regulated hazardous or local air pollutants such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide remain in place.

The EPA said the 2024 rules required control technologies that are not adequately demonstrated and effectively forced plants to retire.

The United States is the second-largest greenhouse-gas emitter after China.