EPA to repeal carbon pollution standards for US power plants

EPA repeals power plant carbon rules

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized the repeal of regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants. Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the move Monday at a meeting of G20 energy ministers in Houston, Texas, according to multiple reports.

Zeldin said the action rolls back most of the power plant greenhouse gas requirements introduced under former President Joe Biden's administration. "For over 15 years, the Obama and Biden administrations implemented a war on coal to destroy reliable and affordable energy," he said in an EPA statement. "The Trump Administration has come in to protect American energy and to make sure you can afford to keep the lights on."

The EPA said the rollback will save $310 billion and reduce electricity prices, calling it the "largest power sector deregulatory action ever," according to Zeldin. The agency also said coal production for use by the power sector was expected to increase more than tenfold.

The repeal overturns 2024 Biden-era standards that required coal and new gas plants to either cut emissions or use technology to capture 90% of their climate pollution. Those rules were projected to reduce carbon pollution from the sector by 75% compared to its 2005 peak, and the EPA at the time projected they would prevent 1,200 premature deaths in 2035 and produce $120 billion in health benefits through 2047.

Broader deregulatory push

The final rule is part of a series of steps by the Trump administration to roll back climate regulations. Earlier this year, the EPA rescinded similar climate standards for vehicles and overturned its 2009 endangerment finding, the scientific determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare, according to reports. The agency has also delayed restrictions on super pollutants used in refrigeration and air conditioning.

The EPA is also proposing a separate rule repealing the federal finding that greenhouse gases from power plants specifically pose a threat, effectively a separate endangerment finding for the sector under the Clean Air Act. Agency officials have argued that regulating climate emissions from power plants is beyond the EPA's authority under the Clean Air Act.

Power plants are the largest industrial source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US. If the US power sector were a country, it would rank as the world's sixth-largest emitter, according to an analysis of 2022 emissions data by New York University School of Law's Institute for Policy Integrity. The electricity sector is responsible for nearly a quarter of US greenhouse gas pollution.

Reactions and expected challenges

The repeal is widely expected to face legal challenges. Environmental groups have criticized the move harshly. Holly Bender, chief program officer at the Sierra Club, said the administration is "handing the fossil fuel industry a license to keep polluting" and vowed her organization "will fight back against this reckless and dangerous proposal with everything we have in the courts, in Congress, and in communities."

Meredith Hankins, federal climate legal director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the EPA is "fully repealing standards with no intent to replace them." Rachel Cleetus, senior policy director with the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the administration is "putting the interests of fossil fuel polluters above the health and wellbeing of the American people."

Carrie Jenks, executive director of the environmental and energy law program at Harvard Law School, said the repeal creates market uncertainty for power companies and will likely face legal challenge.

Industry groups, meanwhile, welcomed the change. Michelle Bloodworth of America's Power said the rollback will help preserve the coal fleet, protect grid reliability, and shield customers from higher costs. Rachael Marsh of the Edison Electric Institute welcomed the repeal of carbon capture and storage-based standards.

The EPA's top air regulator, Aaron Szabo, defended the move, saying: "The reality is that America produces energy better and cleaner than anywhere else in the world and power plants should not be unfairly targeted." The agency argued that fossil fuel plants do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution and that power plant emissions have no material impact on global climate change.

Context and implications

The rollback comes as the US recorded an increase in planet-heating pollution in 2025, reversing a previous downward trend, driven in part by power plants burning more coal, according to CNN. The US also experienced its hottest summer on record, and the country formally withdrew from the Paris climate agreement in January.

Zealan Hoover, a former senior advisor to the EPA administrator during the Biden administration, said the rollback could result in as much as 5.8 billion metric tons of added carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. "This administration is choosing to cut those standards," he said.

California maintains its own regulations on the power sector. Lindsay Buckley, a spokesperson for the California Air Resources Board, said the federal decision "has no effect on California's rules and greenhouse gases from the state's power plants are still regulated under" the state's cap-and-trade program.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, however, praised the action: "Unlike past administrations that prioritized the interests of climate alarmists, President Trump promised to put the American people first and he is delivering."

Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy countered that the Clean Air Act is clear that the EPA has a statutory obligation to regulate significant sources of pollution.

The EPA did not respond to requests for comment outside business hours before the announcement.