President Trump has done more to fix the “affordability” issue than Democrats have ever done or would ever do, and he’s not even two years into his last four-year term, including the approval of a rule change set to go into effect this week that should even out or even lower electricity costs.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday finalized the repeal of federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and natural gas-fired power plants, reversing one of the Biden administration’s central climate regulations.
EPA officials said the change will remove more than $300 billion in projected industry costs and give utilities greater flexibility to keep existing power plants operating as electricity demand rises. The action represents a major shift in federal energy and climate policy under President Donald Trump, whose administration has moved to dismantle a series of greenhouse gas regulations adopted under Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
The Biden administration finalized the power-plant standards in 2024 under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act. Those rules imposed carbon limits on existing coal-fired plants and new natural gas facilities. Long-running coal plants planning to remain open beyond 2039 were generally expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an amount based on 90% carbon capture by 2032.
New heavily used natural gas plants faced a similar 90% carbon-capture standard beginning in 2032. Coal plants planning to close earlier faced less stringent requirements. The Biden EPA estimated that the standards would eliminate more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions through 2047 while producing substantial climate and public-health benefits.
The Trump administration has taken a sharply different view. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin argued when proposing the repeal last year that greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. fossil-fuel power plants do not make the kind of “significant contribution” to dangerous air pollution required for regulation under the agency’s interpretation of the Clean Air Act.
EPA also argued that the rules would place costly requirements on utilities and could accelerate the closure of coal plants at a time when electricity demand is increasing because of data centers, artificial intelligence, manufacturing and other uses.
Supporters of the repeal say removing the mandates could improve grid reliability and prevent consumers from absorbing the costs of expensive carbon-capture systems. Utilities will now have greater discretion to decide whether older fossil-fuel plants should remain open rather than making those decisions around federal carbon standards, administration officials said.
Environmental organizations strongly oppose the action. They argue that power plants remain one of the largest sources of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and say repealing the rules will increase carbon pollution and contribute to worsening climate impacts. Coal-, oil- and natural gas-fired power plants account for roughly one-quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making the electricity sector the country’s second-largest source after transportation.
The Environmental Defense Fund and other left-wing groups said they expect to challenge the repeal in federal court. The legal fight is likely to focus heavily on EPA’s interpretation of its authority under the Clean Air Act and whether the agency adequately justified reversing its previous determination that power-plant emissions should be regulated.
The Supreme Court has already limited EPA’s authority over power-sector greenhouse gases. In its 2022 decision in West Virginia v. EPA, the court ruled that EPA could not use an expansive interpretation of the Clean Air Act to require a broad shift in electricity generation away from coal. The Biden administration subsequently wrote the 2024 standards around pollution controls that could be applied directly at individual power plants rather than requiring system-wide generation changes.
The Trump administration is now seeking to go further by eliminating those carbon standards altogether. EPA also announced a separate proposal that could make it more difficult for future administrations to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, building on the agency’s February decision to revoke the 2009 greenhouse gas “endangerment finding” for motor vehicles.
Monday’s action does not eliminate every federal pollution requirement affecting power plants. Coal and gas facilities remain subject to other Clean Air Act limits involving conventional pollutants and hazardous emissions, although the Trump EPA has separately rolled back portions of other Biden-era rules, including tighter mercury requirements for coal plants.
