The Environmental Protection Agency announced it will remove its ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas power plants under the Clean Air Act, marking a significant reversal of emissions oversight. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin unveiled the decision at a G20 meeting in Houston, characterizing the move as protecting American energy from what he described as a “war on coal.” The agency projects the action will result in 123 million metric tons of additional carbon emissions over the next decade while saving power plant operators $370 million in compliance costs.
The EPA’s justification contends that greenhouse gas emissions from power plants have “no material impact on global climate change,” despite data indicating that US electricity generation accounts for approximately one-quarter of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. If the power sector operated as an independent nation, it would rank as the world’s fifth largest carbon emitter, behind China, the United States, India, and Russia.
This decision builds on earlier administration actions that have dismantled climate-related regulations. Earlier in the year, the EPA overturned the 2009 endangerment finding that established greenhouse gases as a threat to public health and the environment, and eliminated pollution standards for vehicles. The current move reverses carbon pollution standards for power plants that were established during the Biden administration in 2024, which had projected preventing 1,200 premature deaths and 360,000 asthma attacks by 2035 through improved air quality.
Environmental organizations immediately pledged legal challenges to the reversal. The Sierra Club and other groups criticized the action as dangerous policy that prioritizes industry interests over public health. Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, who served under Barack Obama, characterized the decision as allowing major industrial polluters to escape accountability for emissions reductions.
The decision represents another chapter in prolonged disputes over US power sector emissions regulation, following a 2016 Supreme Court decision that blocked Obama-era clean power standards and subsequent Biden administration efforts to establish narrower emissions requirements through court-approved parameters.
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