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The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it aims to eliminate existing restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants.
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said at a press conference that Biden-era carbon pollution standards at power plants “suffocate” the economy in order to protect the environment. Zeldin, appointed by President Donald Trump in January, said the agency’s announcement was a major step forward in US energy control and promised not to release more electricity than the power plants already do. Currently, the electricity sector accounts for a quarter of all US emissions, according to the latest EPA emissions data.
Zeldin also said the EPA plans to undermine Biden-era regulations regarding mercury emissions from power plants.
Environmental advocates say the EPA’s proposal is an escalation in the Trump administration’s ongoing push for climate action across federal agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Energy and the National Weather Service. In 2024, the Biden administration established the strictest carbon pollution standards for power plants to date to tackle the climate crisis, but these rules now face an uncertain future.
Gina McCarthy, former EPA administrator for President Joe Biden, called Zeldin’s announcement a “political play” in a statement Wednesday that denied a “decades of science and policy review.”
“By giving more pollution a green light, his legacy will forever be for those who bid for the fossil fuel industry at the expense of our health,” McCarthy said.
“What science tells us, and what we see every day, in the face of what the law needs, removing pollution standards from the biggest industrial gas pollution in the United States,” says Jill Tauber, vice president of climate and energy litigation at Earthjustice, a nonprofit that currently sues the Trump administration over several environmental rollbacks.
US power plants are major contributors to global carbon emissions. A report published by the Institute of Policy Integrity at the School of Law at New York University found that the US power sector would be the sixth largest emitter in the world if it is its own country.
Under the first Trump administration, the EPA rolled back several Obama-era greenhouse gas standards for power plants, but this recent announcement is only marked when the agency suggests it will completely abolish it. Zeldin’s power plant move follows his promise in March to tackle “climate religion,” and review or eliminate 31 regulations surrounding tailpipe emissions, coal ash regulations and oil and gas wastewater management.
The proposed rules currently moving into the comment period face scrutiny from legal advocates and environmental nonprofits like the Natural Resources Defense Council, who say the EPA is obligated to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in law.
“We are looking closely to see whether the EPA will abolish these life-saving standards based on legal theory that will not pass the laughter test,” said Meredith Hawkins, Federal Climate Law Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The NRDC is ready to defend its right to breathe in court when necessary.”
Reducing the historic limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants will have an impact on global climate change, but it can also have ripple effects on human health and the economy.
Harvey Writer, a lawyer and law professor at George Washington University, said if the EPA advances its planned abolition, he hopes for energy companies and utilities that will make long-term investments in renewable energy to sue the Trump administration.
“The biggest impact of the proposed rules is uncertainty and instability,” he said. “No one knows what to do next. It makes investment decisions difficult. It makes decisions about employment, staff and employees difficult. It creates a lot of uncertainty in the market.”
Greenhouse gas emissions from power plants are more than just a climate issue. Combusted fossil fuels release carbon dioxide like other air pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, mercury and particulate matter. These are associated with increased risk of respiratory problems and cardiovascular disease. Regulating carbon emissions from power plants will broadly reduce other air pollution in communities living near the power plants, said Laura Kate Bender, vice president of national advocacy and public policy at the American Lung Association.
“It works both ways, while fossil fuel-burning power plants contribute to climate change and at the same time create health issues,” Bender said. “And often, climate change contributes to extreme heat, or more wildfire smoke, or more ozone smog. Climate change is a health emergency, and reducing carbon in the electricity sector is an important tool in our toolbox to combat climate change.”
This story first appeared on nbcnews.com. More from NBC News:
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