Trump moves to scrap Biden-era carbon limits on US coal & gas power plants

The Donald Trump administration is set to scrap Biden-era limits on carbon emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants, marking another major rollback of US climate policy and removing restrictions that targeted a sector responsible for nearly a quarter of the country’s greenhouse gas pollution.The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to announce the final rule on Monday on the sidelines of a G20 energy ministers’ meeting in Houston, according to news agency AP.EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is expected to unveil the changes as ministers discuss energy security, expanding baseload power and “regulatory efficiency”.The move would repeal rules introduced under former President Joe Biden in 2024 and could also seek to prevent future administrations from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

What is Trump changing?

The first part of the package is the repeal of Biden’s 2024 standards for greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal-fired power plants and new gas-fired plants.Those rules required power plants to eliminate or sharply reduce carbon dioxide emissions over time, with reductions of up to 90% under the standards. Biden’s rules were projected to cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 1 billion metric tonnes by 2047, according to Reuters.

The Trump administration had proposed repealing the rules last year, arguing that they were too difficult for power plants to meet and that their deadlines were too tight.The second part goes further by arguing that the EPA does not have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector at all.The administration’s position builds on its February decision to overturn the 2009 Endangerment Finding, the scientific determination that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare.

EPA says rollback will cut industry costs

The Trump administration has framed the rollback as part of its broader push to “unleash American energy” and reduce regulatory costs for the fossil fuel industry.When the proposal was announced last year, Zeldin said repealing the Biden-era rules would save companies about $120 million a year.Zeldin had also described Biden-era policies as a “war on so much of our US domestic energy supply”, arguing that they threatened the coal industry and restricted energy production.The coal industry and groups representing coal-fired power plants have welcomed the proposed repeal.America’s Power, a trade organisation representing the US coal fleet, said lifting the rules would protect grid reliability and shield electricity consumers from higher costs amid rising electricity demand from data centres, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing.The rollback comes as the Trump administration continues to prioritise fossil fuel production and energy availability.

Climate and health groups push back

Environmental and public health groups have strongly opposed the changes and are expected to challenge the rules in court.Maggie Coulter, an attorney at the Centre for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said the move would have serious consequences.“Denying the existence of a quarter of the country’s climate pollution is utterly reckless. It will lead to more lost lives and suffering from intense heatwaves, drastic storms and destructive wildfires, just like those we’ve seen this summer,” Coulter said, according to Reuters.Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund, said dismantling protections against power-plant pollution would carry major costs for public health and safety.“Tearing down our national protections against climate pollution from power plants will have enormous costs for the health, safety and well-being of families across the country,” Patton said, according to AP.The Biden-era rules could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they were in effect, based on an examination of previous EPA assessments and other research.The agency’s analysis also found that even a partial dismantling of the rules could lead to increased exposure to pollutants including smog, mercury, lead and fine particles, alongside higher greenhouse gas emissions.

A wider reversal of US climate policy

Trump has repeatedly rejected policies aimed at reducing human-caused climate change. He has called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” and has described human-induced climate change as “a hoax”.His administration has also withdrawn the US from the 2015 Paris climate accord for a second time and moved to eliminate greenhouse gas standards for vehicle tailpipe emissions.The latest power-plant rollback represents a further reversal of policies pursued by both the Biden and Obama administrations to reduce industrial pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.Legal challenges are expected to follow because of the competing arguments underpinning the new rules.Meredith Hankins, a legal expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told news agency AFP that the administration’s two proposed moves appeared to have conflicting legal justifications.The technical repeal acknowledges, at least in its draft form, that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions but argues that the Biden administration implemented the rules incorrectly.The broader proposal, meanwhile, is expected to argue that the agency lacks such authority altogether.“We’ll have to look at the final text of the rule,” Hankins said. “But I think on its face you can see the contradictions. So I’m certainly looking forward to seeing them in court.”The final rule is expected to provide a clearer picture of how far the Trump administration intends to go in restricting the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions from the US power sector.