EPA repeals Biden-era carbon dioxide limits for coal and gas power plants
U.S. PoliticsWell-covered
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The Facts
- The EPA repealed Biden-era carbon dioxide emissions limits for coal- and gas-fired power plants.
- Lee Zeldin announced the action during a G20 energy ministers’ meeting in Houston.
- The repealed rule applied to existing coal plants and newly built natural-gas plants.
- The Biden-era requirements called for covered plants to control 90% of carbon dioxide emissions.
- The EPA also proposed ending remaining greenhouse-gas regulations for power plants.
- Power plants are the second-largest U.S. source of carbon dioxide emissions after transportation.
- The EPA says the changes will save $310 billion and lower electricity prices.
- Environmental advocates have criticized the action over potential pollution and public-health effects.
Context
What rules did the EPA repeal?
The EPA repealed Biden-era requirements for existing coal plants and new natural-gas plants to control 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions. CNBC Washington Post
Why does the decision affect climate policy?
Power plants are the second-largest U.S. source of carbon dioxide emissions after transportation, and the EPA has also proposed ending remaining greenhouse-gas rules for the sector. CNBC Washington Post
What happens next?
The EPA’s proposal to block future greenhouse-gas regulation of power plants has not been finalized, and the broader action is expected to face legal challenges. Guardian Investing.com
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- Both accept that the repealed rule required covered plants to control 90% of their CO2 emissions and that the EPA's public justification rests on a $310 billion savings estimate rather than a quantified health-risk accounting.
- Where Left and Right split
- Whether the burden of proof falls on regulators to justify sweeping emissions mandates before imposing their cost on ratepayers, or on the EPA to justify erasing protections against a major pollution source without weighing the health risk.
- Why they won’t converge
- The split is less about facts than trust in regulatory authority: whether the EPA's claim that it lacks power under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases is a principled limit or a pretext for skipping the health-cost accounting advocates demand.
- Watch for
- Watch whether power-plant carbon emissions approach the administration's own estimate of 123 million additional metric tons by 2035, the benchmark it used to justify the repeal's climate impact.The Hill
How left and right read it
Power plants are the country's second-largest source of carbon dioxide, so a rule requiring them to control ninety percent of those emissions was not a technicality but a direct check on a major pollution source, and the EPA just wiped it out along with the rest of the federal greenhouse-gas framework for the sector. Advocates warn of pollution and public-health harm, yet the agency answers with a savings figure instead of an accounting of that risk. That is precisely why this reads as, in the Times' words, completing the erasure of the most consequential climate policies of Biden and Obama — and why enforceable limits on this sector should be restored, not simply priced out.
“The shift by the Environmental Protection Agency would complete the administration's erasure of the most consequential climate policies of Presidents Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Barack Obama.” — The New York Times
Regulation that forces power plants to control the overwhelming share of their carbon dioxide output should have to justify its cost, not just its intentions, so repealing that mandate and clearing away the rules that remain is a reasonable check on regulatory reach. The EPA says the changes will save $310 billion and lower electricity prices, and that price signal deserves real weight against the mandate it replaces. Advocates warn of pollution and health effects, but the burden falls on regulators to prove such sweeping controls were worth what they cost, not on ratepayers to accept it on faith.
The receipts — all 100 sources
Wire services (9)
Independent coverage (50)
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