The Trump administration is moving to repeal significant portions of the Biden administration's greenhouse gas emission standards for U.S. power plants, a move the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states could save the industry up to $670 billion in compliance costs. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency is repealing the majority of the Biden-era greenhouse gas requirements for power plants, projecting this action alone will save $310 billion.
Zeldin also proposed eliminating all remaining greenhouse gas emission standards for power plants, which the EPA estimates would yield an additional $370 billion in savings. The administration asserts these changes are designed to increase coal and natural gas power production, with coal production for the power sector expected to rise tenfold under the new regulations.
"For over 15 years, the Obama and Biden administrations implemented a war on coal to destroy reliable and affordable energy. The Trump Administration has come in to protect American energy and to make sure you can afford to keep the lights on," Zeldin said in a statement. He added that Americans will see a decrease in electricity prices, and that "American energy can be fully unleashed."
The EPA contends that Biden's 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards exceeded the agency's authority by setting unattainable standards for power plants with the intent of forcing their closure. The agency stated in its release that models show greenhouse gas emissions from power plants have no material impact on global climate change and that eliminating all carbon dioxide emissions would have no meaningful climate impact.
"Additionally, the targeted emissions are global in nature, and any potential public health harms are too uncertain, conjectural, remote, and convoluted to tie specifically to the U.S. power sector," the EPA continued.
Energy Secretary Christ Wright supported the EPA's decision, emphasizing that coal and natural gas provide essential stability for U.S. power infrastructure, irrespective of weather conditions. He criticized the previous administration for driving energy policy "into a ditch."
The Trump administration's move reverses policies enacted during the Biden administration, which aimed to reduce carbon emissions from the power sector. This regulatory shift is expected to favor increased domestic production of fossil fuels.