EPA scraps Biden power plant GHG rules, moves to eliminate other standards — SkimNews
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- EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Monday the agency finalized repeal of most provisions of the Biden-era 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants and proposed rescinding every remaining GHG emissions standard for the power sector.
- EPA justified the rollback by saying it lacks Clean Air Act authority to regulate power plant GHGs to address climate change, citing the Trump administration's repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding and the Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision as legal basis.
- EPA's press release asserted "GHG emissions from power plants have no material impact on global climate change" — a claim NASA's scientific evidence directly contradicts, noting that human fossil-fuel burning has warmed Earth's surface and oceans.
- Edison Electric Institute, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, and America's Power welcomed the move; NRECA CEO Jim Matheson called the Biden rules "unlawful, unrealistic and unachievable" and said electric co-ops plan $29 billion to bring more than 20 gigawatts of new natural gas generation online — enough to power 17 million homes.
- Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and Climate Mayors Executive Director Kate Wright vowed to fight the rollback in court, with Tong declaring: "We've fought every one of these reckless rollbacks, and we're ready to sue again."
- The finalized repeal takes effect 60 days after Federal Register publication, while EPA will hold a public hearing and a 45-day public comment period on its proposal to eliminate all remaining power-sector GHG standards.
Why it matters: The finalized repeal lifts the requirement that coal plants either shut down by 2032 or install costly carbon capture technology — handing coal operators a reprieve while utilities gain regulatory certainty for $29 billion in planned natural gas investment. Former EPA officials, state attorneys general, and environmental groups are already lining up to sue, meaning the rules' fate will likely be decided in federal courts.
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