EPA scraps Biden-era coal and gas power plant emissions limits — SkimNews
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- EPA head Lee Zeldin announced the agency is scrapping Biden-era rules limiting emissions from coal and gas power plants, claiming the regulations exceeded the agency's authority and forced plant retirements rather than setting achievable standards
- The EPA said eliminating the majority of Biden-era climate rules will save $310bn and reduce energy prices, and the agency also said it would take steps to prevent future administrations from regulating power plant emissions
- Biden-era regulations would have required major reductions in carbon emissions from power plants, vehicles, and industrial facilities, with estimates the measures would prevent 4,500 premature deaths annually; the EPA countered that any potential public health harms are too uncertain to tie specifically to the US power sector
- Environmental groups including Nathaniel Keohane of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions blasted the move as a 'giant step backward' that ignores sound science and economics; the EPA's action is expected to face immediate legal challenges
- The US power sector accounts for roughly a quarter of US emissions at approximately 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent annually, a footprint larger than the total emissions of all but a handful of countries, though power-sector emissions have generally been falling as coal use declines
- Some researchers question whether coal will make the resurgence Trump has argued for, pointing to sharp cost declines in clean technologies like solar power over the past decade
- The Trump administration has been rolling back climate policies across the board: in February the EPA reversed a landmark Obama-era scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten public health, a decision challenged by multiple states and local governments
Why it matters: The US power sector spews about 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent yearly, yet the EPA argues the public-health costs of regulation are too uncertain to quantify. With legal challenges already expected and the power sector now shielded from future federal climate rules, Americans who would have benefited from the estimated 4,500 avoided premature deaths per year under Biden's framework bear the risk of that trade-off.
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