EPA to rescind power plant carbon pollution standards — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is expected to formally rescind carbon pollution standards for fossil fuel power plants today, completing the Trump administration's elimination of Obama- and Biden-era climate policies.
- The repeal could prevent future administrations from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act, per The New York Times.
- Climate Mayors, C40 Cities, and Columbia's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law opposed the repeal in an Aug. 7, 2025 letter, citing costly fiscal and public health impacts on U.S. cities from power plant emissions.
- Twelve cities and counties joined 24 states in a March lawsuit challenging EPA's repeal of its 2009 endangerment finding, the legal underpinning for greenhouse gas regulation under the Clean Air Act.
- EPA estimated repealing the standards saves the power sector about $1.2 billion/year, while the Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU School of Law says the original 2024 rules would deliver $370 billion in net benefits over two decades.
- Dena Adler, senior attorney at the Institute for Policy Integrity, stated the Supreme Court has made clear EPA has an obligation to control power plant GHG emissions under the Clean Air Act, calling the rollback a violation of EPA's legal responsibilities.
Why it matters: The rollback strips federal authority over the second-largest U.S. greenhouse gas emitter while 36 states and cities are already litigating. The $1.2 billion in annual utility savings EPA cites is dwarfed by the $370 billion in projected net benefits the 2024 standards would have delivered over two decades, per the Institute for Policy Integrity.
Ask SkimNews
