Trump EPA proposes repealing major air pollution and emissions limits for power plants

By Ella Nilsen, CNN

(CNN) — The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to scrap two major federal regulations that limit air pollution and planet-warming emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants, the agency’s head announced Wednesday.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the proposal targets a rule regulating all planet-warming carbon emissions from existing and new power plants, as well as a separate rule regulating mercury and other air toxins produced by burning coal to generate electricity. Furthermore, the agency argued fossil fuel-fired power plants “do not contribute significantly” to “dangerous” air pollution as defined by the Clean Air Act.

The proposed repeals are two of the most consequential moves from Trump’s EPA as the administration continues dismantling Biden-era climate and clean energy policies. If finalized, they could impact public health and energy prices nationwide.

“Rest assured, President Trump is the biggest supporter of clean, beautiful coal,” Zeldin said Wednesday. “We will use coal for power generation, to mine for critical minerals and to export to our allies.”

The agency didn’t announce any intent to rewrite regulations to replace the Biden rules on carbon emissions, which could effectively leave carbon emissions from US power plants unregulated if the proposed repeal is finalized. Zeldin announced the agency will revise the rule on mercury and other toxic air pollution, proposing to get rid of a Biden-era rule finalized last year.

Power plants are the second-biggest emitters of planet-warming pollution in the United States, making up around a quarter of the country’s climate pollution. US power plants alone contribute 3% of total global climate pollution.

By seeking to repeal the carbon rules with no replacement, the administration’s proposal is more sweeping than the power plant regulations finalized during Trump’s first term, Carrie Jenks, the executive director of Harvard Law School’s Environmental & Energy Law Program, told CNN.

It would result in aging coal plants operating for longer periods of time and allow new gas plants to be built with looser pollution restrictions, Jenks said.

“You’re starting to see coal fired power plants that were expected to retire continue to operate,” Jenks added. “You’re seeing the administration direct certain power plants to continue to operate, even though they’re not asking for additional time. All of that has public health and climate change implications that are going to be important.”

The Energy Department recently ordered an over-60-year-old Michigan coal power plant set to shutter last month to run throughout the summer, even though the plant’s utility, state regulators and regional grid operator had not requested the extension. Michigan state officials told CNN the move would cost Midwest energy customers tens of millions of dollars.

Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel, and if the repeal is finalized, it could drive up energy prices if expensive coal plants remain on the grid longer as a result. Public health groups also said they were concerned the proposed repeal would worsen air quality.

“Weakening the standards now is indefensible from a public health standpoint and a betrayal of EPA’s mission,” American Lung Association President and CEO Harold Wimmer said in a statement. “The agency’s mission is to protect public health and the environment, not to expose people to more toxic pollution.”

It marks a sharp reversal from the Biden administration’s policies to lower pollution from power plants and make the air around them healthier to breathe. The Trump administration is seeking to overturn carbon pollution rules finalized by the Biden administration last year that would have compelled coal and new natural gas power plants to either cut or capture 90% of their climate pollution by 2032.

Zeldin blasted the Biden-era regulations as “regulating coal, oil and gas out of existence.”

“The intent of the Biden administration was to go after baseload power throughout the entire country, to reduce access to energy, to get rid of jobs, decimating communities, making it harder for Americans to afford to survive,” Zeldin said.

The EPA’s move is part of the Trump administration’s broader energy agenda to boost the production and use of fossil fuels, which contribute to climate change. Administration officials have panned cleaner energy sources like wind, solar and batteries as unreliable.

“This isn’t any surprise,” Zeldin said. “The president campaigned on this, and we’re fulfilling promises that were made to the American public.”

Zeldin was joined Wednesday by several Republican lawmakers from coal-producing states, as well as Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, who spoke about the importance of coal mining and power plant jobs for his constituents.

Coal mining “continues to provide millions of dollars in revenues to the nation, thousands of jobs,” Nygren said. “Economically, it’s one of those things where we can’t do without it.”

Nationally, coal mining jobs have dropped precipitously from nearly 70,000 in 2015 to 41,000 currently, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The proposed repeals will go through a public comment period before being finalized.

The EPA is also expected later this year to start the process of reversing a key 2009 scientific finding on the dangers of climate pollution that has served as the basis for federal regulations to cut down on it.

Dismissing that precedent would strip the EPA’s authority to manage the pollution that causes global warming, but environmental groups have said they will challenge it in court. Some suggested EPA’s new proposals ran counter to US pollution laws.

“The proposed repeal runs afoul of EPA’s pollution reduction obligation under the Clean Air Act,” said Frank Sturges, an attorney at the Clean Air Task Force. “EPA must abandon this proposal.”

This is a developing story and has been updated.

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