The EPA just wiped out federal greenhouse gas limits on coal and natural gas power plants, cutting more than $300 billion in projected industry costs.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday finalized the repeal of Biden-era carbon emissions standards for fossil fuel power plants. The move reverses one of the previous administration’s signature climate regulations and marks a sweeping shift in federal energy policy under President Donald Trump.
EPA officials said the repeal gives utilities greater flexibility to keep existing power plants running as electricity demand rises. Driving that demand are data centers, artificial intelligence infrastructure, manufacturing, and other growing sectors of the economy.
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The Biden administration finalized its power plant standards in 2024 under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act. Those rules required existing coal plants planning to stay open past 2039 to cut carbon dioxide emissions based on a 90% carbon capture standard by 2032. New, heavily used natural gas plants faced the same 90% carbon capture threshold starting that same year. Coal plants with earlier closure plans faced less stringent requirements. The Biden EPA projected those standards would eliminate more than one billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions through 2047.
As originally reported, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin argued when he proposed the repeal last year that greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. fossil fuel power plants do not meet the legal threshold of “significant contribution” to dangerous air pollution required for regulation under the agency’s reading of the Clean Air Act.
The administration also contended that forcing utilities to install costly carbon capture systems could accelerate coal plant closures at precisely the moment the grid needs more capacity. Repealing the rules, supporters say, gives utilities the power to decide which older plants stay open based on operational and economic realities rather than federal carbon mandates.
Environmental groups are pushing back hard. The Environmental Defense Fund and other organizations argue that power plants remain one of the country’s largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Coal, oil, and natural gas plants collectively account for roughly one quarter of total U.S. greenhouse gas output, making electricity generation the second-largest source in the country after transportation. These groups have signaled they plan to challenge the repeal in federal court, with the legal fight likely centering on whether the EPA properly justified reversing its earlier regulatory determination.
The Supreme Court already trimmed the agency’s power over this issue. In its 2022 West Virginia v. EPA ruling, the court blocked the agency from using a broad interpretation of the Clean Air Act to drive a system-wide shift away from coal generation. The Biden EPA then wrote its 2024 rules around controls applied directly at individual plants to work around that decision.
Trump’s EPA is now going further, seeking to eliminate the carbon standards entirely. The agency also announced a separate proposal that could make it harder for future administrations to reimpose greenhouse gas regulations on power plants. Monday’s action does not remove all federal pollution requirements. Coal and gas facilities remain subject to Clean Air Act limits on conventional pollutants and hazardous emissions, though the Trump EPA has already rolled back portions of other Biden-era rules, including tighter mercury limits for coal plants.
