The US Environmental Protection Agency on September 14 finalized the repeal of most of the 2024 carbon pollution standards for power plants and proposed removing the remaining greenhouse-gas requirements. Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the actions at a G20 energy ministerial in Houston, Texas, according to the agency. The wider rollback is still a proposal.
The measures reverse a central element of former president Joe Biden’s climate policy for coal and gas electricity generation. Reuters reported that the earlier rules required affected plants to capture emissions before they entered the atmosphere. The electricity sector accounts for nearly a quarter of US greenhouse-gas pollution, the news agency said.
The EPA estimates that the finalized repeal will save $310 billion, while the separate proposal would save another $370 million in direct compliance costs if adopted. These are agency projections. Zeldin said the changes would lower electricity prices; the EPA argues that the 2024 requirements relied on control technologies that had not been adequately demonstrated.
In its new proposal, signed on September 14, the EPA argues that Section 111 of the Clean Air Act does not authorize it to regulate power-plant emissions to address global climate change. The document seeks to rescind contrary findings from 2015 and the associated standards. It explicitly separates this proposed legal rationale from the finalized repeal of certain 2024 rules.
Environmental groups opposed the rollback, warning of damage to public health and the environment, according to AP and Reuters. Their objections challenge the administration’s case for reducing regulatory costs. The dispute concerns both the immediate removal of emissions controls and the EPA’s proposed interpretation of its authority to regulate this pollution in future.
The proposed wider repeal must still go through public consultation. The EPA’s signed notice provides for comments for 45 days after publication in the Federal Register and a virtual hearing. It says the online text is a prepublication version, with the official version to follow. The final repeal and the still-pending proposal therefore remain separate regulatory actions.
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