EPA repeals most of Biden-era power plant emission rule

The Trump administration on Monday repealed most of a Biden-era rule that would have limited planet-warming emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants. The move is expected to allow the release of significantly more greenhouse gas pollution from a sector that makes up a large share of U.S. climate change contributions.

Environmental Protection Agency assistant administrator Aaron Szabo told reporters that limited pieces of Biden- and Obama-era regulations would remain in place.

The action repeals most of a Biden-era rule that would have required existing coal plants and new gas plants to prevent 90 percent of their carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere, according to the EPA.

The EPA also 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 move could block future administrations from regulating power plants’ climate emissions.

Overall, Szabo said the moves would allow “American families and businesses experience lower electricity costs … thanks to an increased power supply.”

In a press release, the EPA said it expects its final rule to save $310 billion. Last year’s analysis found that axing power plant climate rules could reduce electricity prices by an average of 1.4 percent in 2035.

When it proposed to kill the regulations last year, the Trump administration estimated that doing so would result in the release of 123 million more metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2035 alone, equivalent to putting an additional 28.7 million gas-powered cars on the road.

President Trump has falsely said that climate change is a “hoax” on multiple occasions, and his administration has broadly sought to cut back or eliminate climate regulations. It recently repealed all climate rules for cars and trucks, saying their emissions did not pose a threat to the public.

Environmental activists criticized the rollback.

“It’s really just the Trump EPA putting their head in the sand,” said Meredith Hankins, federal climate legal director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “I mean, you can look at the weather we experienced this summer, the heat waves on the Fourth of July. We’re going into an El Niño season with potential hurricanes and even more extreme weather. We see the impacts of climate change all around us every day, and the Trump EPA is trying to say, ‘Well, that’s not our problem.'”

Rachael Marsh, chief legal officer at the Edison Electric Institute, a trade group representing power companies, said in a statement that it “welcomes EPA’s repeal” of the Biden-era rule.