The US Environmental Protection [sic] Agency is expected to imminently dismantle another major Biden-era environmental measure by repealing limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants.
The EPA argues that the rules impose unnecessary costs on the energy industry and could threaten reliable electricity supplies. The Biden-era standards were designed to reduce carbon emissions from the power sector, which accounts for almost a quarter of US greenhouse gas emissions.
The EPA’s latest action is part of a much wider programme of deregulation under President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
In February, the agency revoked the 2009 ‘endangerment finding’ that established the legal basis for federal regulation of greenhouse gases because of their threat to public health and welfare. The move also led to the repeal of federal greenhouse gas standards for cars, trucks and other road vehicles.
Also to go were stricter amendments to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which regulate pollutants including mercury and particulate matter from coal and oil-fired power plants. The agency said the move would save money for energy producers, while critics have warned that weaker controls could expose communities to more hazardous pollution.
The EPA has also proposed changes that would reduce some requirements placed on states dealing with ozone pollution, arguing that parts of the Biden-era system created unnecessary administrative burdens.
The Biden administration’s power-plant rules were projected to prevent around one billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2047. The latest repeal is expected to face legal challenges, potentially setting up another lengthy battle over the federal government’s authority to regulate climate pollution.
In response to the latest news, Moms Clean Air Force Director & Co-Founder Dominique Browning released the following statement: ‘We’ve watched the Trump-Zeldin EPA destroy one climate protection after another – and this anticipated rollback on limits on climate pollution for power plants is yet another direct attack on our ability to keep children safe from increasingly dangerous extreme weather.
‘There’s overwhelming scientific consensus that greenhouse gas pollution from human activity is driving climate change, that our critical window of time to act is shrinking, and our families and communities are feeling the impacts of an ever-hotter climate every single day.
‘Zeldin’s expected rollback of power plant protections is particularly egregious given the devastating extreme weather we’ve seen, yet again, this summer. Last month was the hottest month ever recorded. Families suffered through heat-related illnesses, smothering wildfire smoke, and catastrophic flooding in Texas just a year after the Camp Mystic floods.
‘Rather than act on his clear responsibility to protect families in the U.S. from environmental harms, Zeldin has corrupted his agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment.
‘We are paying the price for this corruption. Failure to limit climate pollution means more children ending up in the emergency room with asthma attacks and heatstroke, more families struggling to rebuild homes after harrowing storms and more farmers’ livelihoods disrupted by dangerous drought.
‘It means higher health care bills, higher insurance costs, and more economic struggle at a time when Americans cannot afford it. We should not have to pay for the government’s failure to safeguard our families with our wallets and our health.’
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