Trump EPA to strip greenhouse gas limits for power plants, a key Biden climate policy

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will revoke limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that run on coal and natural gas, according to regulatory documents Administrator Lee Zeldin signed Monday.

The administration framed the action to repeal 2024 limits on greenhouse gas emissions from virtually all power plants other than wind, solar or hydro-powered as lowering energy costs, which the war with Iran has driven up, as energy producers will save at least $310 million on compliance. The move could produce a tenfold increase in coal power, the agency said.

“Americans will see a decrease in electricity prices, but this is just the beginning,” Zeldin said in the release. “We are working to go even further so that American energy can be fully unleashed. Realizing the full potential of American energy means more jobs, lower prices, and a more prosperous America.”

Environmental groups and elected Democrats blasted the move, which would roll back regulations set by Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, for hastening climate change and increasing air pollution. Some called the action a corrupt favor to an industry that boosted President Donald Trump’s campaign.

“It's simple. Big Oil & Big Coal give millions to help get Trump elected. He lets them pollute more. You get dirtier air, extreme heat, flooding, & droughts,” Maryland U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, wrote on social media. “Trump's trading away your health & safety to pad his donors' pockets. Polluters win, Trump wins, you lose.”

Repeal of Biden carbon pollution standards

The EPA published two regulations in the Federal Register in a single effort Monday that it said would reduce energy costs and boost availability, while complying with judicial rulings in recent years that restricted the agency’s power to regulate climate change.

A final rule would partially repeal the Biden-era Carbon Pollution Standards, which the agency said was not achievable by their 2032 target date and would lead to power plants shutting down. And a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking considered stripping all greenhouse gas limits on fossil-fuel power plants since 2015.

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican who leads the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, applauded the move.

“Finally, under President Trump’s leadership, we are ending the Biden-era Clean Power Plan 2.0, which was designed to eliminate coal and natural gas power generation, drastically increasing Americans’ electric bills,” she said in a statement. “I have long opposed this rule and warned of the devastating economic impacts it would have in West Virginia.”

Zeldin laid the groundwork for the move last year by repealing the agency’s “endangerment finding” that formed the basis of federal regulation targeting climate change.

Monday’s release called concerns about greenhouse gas emissions’ effect on climate change overblown, while elevating “baseload power” generation as a much more important issue for Americans.

“Models continue to show that (greenhouse gas) emissions from power plants have no material impact on global climate change,” the release said. “In fact, if all carbon dioxides were eliminated tomorrow, there would be no meaningful climate impact.”

That finding is disputed, including by an EPA webpage, the climate advocacy group Evergreen Action noted. 

“Electric power generation is the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide pollution, contributing to climate change, which is threatening public health and affecting ecosystems at multiple levels,” the EPA webpage, which was last updated in December, says.

“The EPA’s own publicly available analysis contradicts the administration’s laughable claims that the U.S. power sector doesn’t meaningfully contribute to climate change or harm public health,” Pete Wyckoff, Evergreen’s vice president for policy, said. “If the U.S. power sector were its own country, it would rank as the world's fifth-largest emitter of climate pollution.”

Regulation moving to states

Rhode Island U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, blasted the move and rebutted the EPA’s cost-saving rationale, saying the agency’s “own analysis” showed a 2024 Biden rule would have saved about $20 billion annually in “prevented climate disasters and health care costs.”

“The fossil fuel-captured EPA’s decision to end its regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants is a tragic and expensive mistake,” Whitehouse said. “In refusing to address this national crisis, EPA is shifting the costs of climate change onto every family in America.”

More frequent natural disasters driven by climate change cost lives as well as billions in damage to buildings and infrastructure, property insurance, agricultural losses and more “long-term destabilization of the national economy,” he continued. “But the Trump EPA refuses to measure these costs and is only interested in tabulating, and inflating, the alleged costs to industry.”

Whitehouse added that the decision could backfire on fossil fuel energy producers, as more states and local governments would seek to fill the void left by federal regulators and place their own limits on fossil fuel energy generation.