Trump EPA drafting a rule that would undo decades of progress on limiting pollution from power plants

CNN

26-05-2025

The Environmental Protection Agency is drafting a proposed regulation that would end all federal limits on planet-warming pollution generated by coal and gas-fired power plants, according to documents cited by the New York Times.
The proposed rule, which the agency said would be published once it has completed interagency review, would undo decades of progress on limiting US climate pollution and could drive up energy prices if expensive coal plants remain on the grid longer as a result.
At a minimum, it is a sharp reversal from the Biden administration's policies to lower pollution from power plants and make the air around them healthier to breathe. The Biden EPA finalized new rules last year that would have compelled coal and new natural gas power plants to either cut or capture 90% of their climate pollution by 2032.
In a statement, an EPA spokesperson referenced a 2022 Supreme Court decision striking down the Obama-era Clean Power Plan and said there were 'concerns' that the Biden administration's 'replacement for that rule is similarly overreaching and an attempt to shut down affordable and reliable electricity generation in the United States.'
'As part of this reconsideration, EPA is developing a proposed rule,' the spokesperson added. 'The proposal will be published once it has completed interagency review and been signed by the (EPA) Administrator.'
The documents the New York Times acquired argue the US share of global power plant pollution has fallen, and that even if US power plants cut all of their emissions and pollution, it would not 'meaningfully' improve public health in the US — a claim likely to be fiercely challenged by public health researchers and organizations.
Power plants are the second-biggest emitters of planet-warming pollution in the US, making up around a quarter of the country's climate pollution. US power plants contribute 3% of total global climate pollution.
The proposed rule follows a March announcement from the EPA that it would overturn more than a dozen Biden-era air pollution and climate rules. Trump's EPA announced in March it was preparing to reconsider and strike down a consequential scientific finding on the dangers of climate pollution that has served as the basis behind federal regulations to curb them. Dismissing the precedent would strip the EPA's authority to manage the pollution that causes global warming.
'President Trump promised to kill the Clean Power Plan in his first term, and we continue to build on that progress now,' EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement.