Overview
- The EPA finalized on Monday the repeal of most greenhouse-gas limits on coal- and natural-gas power plants and issued a separate proposal that would block future regulation of those emissions.
- The agency said removing the standards will avoid roughly $300 billion to $310 billion in compliance costs and will let utilities make different decisions about retiring or upgrading plants.
- In its legal rationale the EPA argued that power-plant greenhouse gases do not meet the Clean Air Act threshold for regulation and it has already moved to revoke the 2009 endangerment finding that underpinned prior climate rules.
- Environmental and public-health groups plus Democratic state attorneys general have pledged immediate lawsuits and legal experts say those challenges could take years to resolve through appeals.
- The repeal affects a sector that produces about 24% of U.S. greenhouse gases and reverses a 2024 Biden rule that would have required roughly 90% cuts at targeted plants using carbon capture or cleaner fuels and that the Biden EPA projected would yield large public-health benefits.