Key facts
- EPA will relinquish authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
- The move is expected to result in an additional 123 million metric tons of CO2 released over the next decade.
- The EPA estimates the change will save power plant operators $370 million in compliance costs.
- The Biden administration's previous rules were expected to reduce emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2027.
- The EPA previously scrapped pollution standards for cars and trucks in February.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced in September that it will relinquish its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act, a tool previously used to tackle climate change. This decision effectively removes limits on emissions from coal and gas plants and reduces the government’s ability to curb this pollution.
When the carbon pollution standards for power plants were introduced under the Biden administration in 2024, the EPA said it expected the new rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2027 and provide $370 billion in net benefits. The stricter standards were also expected to prevent 1,200 premature deaths and 360,000 asthma attacks in 2035 alone by improving air quality.
The EPA now expects the new move to result in an additional 123 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere over the next decade. The new EPA analysis does not factor in the financial benefit of lives saved through reduced air pollution in its calculations; therefore, it estimates the move will save power plant operators $370 million in direct compliance costs.
The decision followed President Trump’s earlier-in-the-year move to overturn the foundational 2009 EPA endangerment finding that greenhouse gases pose a significant threat to public health and the environment. In February, the EPA also scrapped pollution standards for cars and trucks.
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said the Trump administration made the rule change to end the “war on coal.” Zeldin said, “Americans will see a decrease in electricity prices, but this is just the beginning,” during a G20 meeting in Houston in September. He added, “We are working to go even further so that American energy can be fully unleashed. Realising the full potential of American energy means more jobs, lower prices and a more prosperous America.”
Meanwhile, the EPA released a statement in which it said, “Models continue to show that GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions from power plants have no material impact on global climate change. In fact, if all carbon dioxide were eliminated tomorrow, there would be no meaningful climate impact.”
The statement from the EPA is strongly at odds with the latest climate science. The U.S. Energy Information Administration stated in 2024, “Scientists know with virtual certainty that high levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere tend to warm the planet. In computer-based models, rising concentrations of greenhouse gases result in a rising average surface temperature of the Earth over time. Rising temperatures may produce changes in precipitation patterns, storm severity, and sea level. Collectively, this phenomenon is commonly referred to as climate change.”
More recently, a University of California at Merced and the Union of Concerned Scientists study found that “climate change from all climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions over the last 70 years has resulted in a 36 per cent decline in annual average mountain snowpacks, the major source of surface water in Western [U.S.] states.”
Electricity generation in the United States alone accounts for a quarter of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. If the sector were a country, it would be the fifth-largest carbon polluter worldwide, after China, the United States, India, and Russia.
Environmental groups were quick to respond to the latest rule change with legal action. Holly Bender, chief programme officer at the Sierra Club, stated: “This is full-throated climate denial while the climate crisis happens in real time, and a shocking betrayal of the American public.” Bender added, “The Sierra Club will fight back against this reckless and dangerous proposal with everything we have in the courts, in Congress, and in communities across the country.”
The move goes hand in hand with the Trump administration’s plans to double down on natural gas development and to save coal plants across the country that were previously set to retire. Both the supply and demand of U.S. natural gas are expected to rise to record highs this year and next, to outpace China’s gas development, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
At the same time, the move follows a recent United Nations announcement warning that the world is set to overshoot the 1.5°C goal to limit warming above pre-industrial levels. The recent UN report warns that rising temperatures will lead to more extreme weather events, such as heat waves and floods, as well as glacier melt, rising sea levels, and coral bleaching. Changes in crucial global systems could also occur, such as the weakening or collapse of ocean currents that carry heat northward from the tropics, with the potential to “reshape the world forever.”
As the UN and several other global institutions warn of the severely detrimental effects of climate change, driven by greenhouse gas emissions, the Trump administration is acting in contradiction to international climate science. Trump administration's moves to weaken air quality standards across various sectors are expected to drive up U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over the coming years, as many other countries around the globe are racing to bring emissions down.