https://apnews.com/article/epa-power-plants-trump-coal-gas-climate-cac1c2c75f8656d8eaf5f0a240edae15
BY MATTHEW DALY
(AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it is repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas, an action the agency said would remove more than $300 billion in costs for the industry and help “unleash” American energy.
The rule change, first proposed last year, represents a fundamental shift from efforts by Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama to address climate change and clean up industrial pollution.
Environmental groups decried the change, saying it would come at a cost to Americans’ health and further degrade the environment. EPA officials said the change would allow utilities to make the best decisions for their ratepayers rather than be forced to close aging or inefficient plants.
The rule is expected to face immediate legal challenges. In a related action, the EPA proposed a separate rule, expected to be made final next year, that could prevent future administrations from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The proposal follows on EPA’s action earlier this year revoking a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.
Republican President Donald Trump called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” at a speech to the United Nations last year, and his administration withdrew the U.S. — for the second time — from the 2015 Paris climate accord that sets voluntary goals to curb planet-warming emissions.
Trump has boasted of U.S. energy abundance even as the Iran war continues to disrupt global fuel markets and gas prices top $4.31 a gallon, up more than a dollar from a year ago.
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Heartland Institute Experts Applaud EPA’s Repeal of Strict Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rule for Power Plants – ‘This represents a massive victory for energy and climate realists who have fought this unscientific overreach for decades.’
The Hill: Trump guts climate rules for coal and gas power plants –
The Trump administration on Monday gutted regulations that limited planet-warming emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants.
The move allows a sector that makes up a large share of the U.S.’s climate change contributions to release greenhouse gases unchecked by the government. It’s expected to be a win for the fossil fuel industry, while allowing the release of significantly more planet-heating pollution.
When it proposed to kill the regulations entirely last year, the Trump administration estimated that in the year 2035 alone, this would result in the release of 123 million more metric tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to putting an additional 28.7 million gas-powered cars on the road.
Monday’s move could be slightly different. While it is expected to repeal large swaths of Biden-era power plant regulations, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assistant administrator Aaron Szabo told reporters that limited pieces of Biden- and Obama-era regs would remain in place.
In addition to Monday’s final rule, the EPA proposed to find that the Clean Air Act does not give it the authority to regulate power plant emissions due to their climate impacts. If finalized, Szabo said that this move could block future administrations from regulating power plants’ climate emissions.
