Trump EPA to strip greenhouse gas limits for power plants, a key Biden climate policy

The EPA signed regulatory documents Monday revoking 2024 limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants, with Administrator Lee Zeldin's agency claiming the move saves energy producers at least $310 million and could produce a tenfold jump in coal power. The release framed this as lowering electricity costs driven up by the war with Iran, while asserting that power-plant emissions have no material impact on climate change and that eliminating all carbon dioxide tomorrow would produce no meaningful climate effect.

Democrats and environmental groups called the underlying science claim false and pointed to the EPA's own webpage, last updated in December, describing power generation as the second-largest source of climate-warming carbon dioxide. Evergreen Action's Pete Wyckoff noted the U.S. power sector alone would rank as the world's fifth-largest emitter if counted as its own country.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse cited the agency's own prior analysis showing the Biden-era rule would have saved roughly $20 billion annually in avoided climate disasters and health costs, arguing the new move shifts those costs onto families instead. Senator Shelley Moore Capito praised the repeal as ending rules she said threatened to eliminate coal and gas generation and spike electric bills.

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