Trump EPA repeals Biden-era power plant carbon pollution limits
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday repealed most of a 2024 rule limiting carbon pollution from power plants, the nation's second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. The agency also proposed revoking all remaining greenhouse gas requirements for power plants, arguing their emissions have no material impact on climate change. The move follows the hottest summer on record and a U.N. report warning of increasingly dangerous climate risks.
Key Facts
- The EPA's final plan guts the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards, which the agency says exceed its authority under the Clean Air Act.
- The agency also proposed revoking all remaining GHG emissions requirements for power plants, arguing their emissions have no material impact on climate change.
- In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that the Clean Air Act's definition of air pollutants includes greenhouse gases, and the EPA made an endangerment finding in 2009.
- President Donald Trump called climate change the 'greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world' during a speech at the United Nations last year.
EPA Repeal Action
The Environmental Protection Agency announced a final plan Monday that guts the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards. The agency said the rule exceeds its authority under the Clean Air Act by requiring control technologies 'that are not adequately demonstrated.' The EPA also proposed revoking 'all remaining GHG emissions requirements for power plants,' arguing their emissions 'have no material impact on climate change.' The plan to revoke the Carbon Pollution Standards was initially revealed last spring.
Legal and Scientific Challenge
In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that the Clean Air Act's definition of air pollutants includes greenhouse gases, which cause climate change. The EPA made that 'endangerment finding' in 2009, requiring action to reduce emissions that pose a danger to human health and the environment. Zealan Hoover, a former senior advisor to the EPA during the Biden administration, said the Trump administration is 'kicking the legs out from under the entire legal framework for regulating climate pollution.' Maggie Coulter, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute, expects the Trump administration to make a 'non-endangerment finding' so they don't have to regulate greenhouse gas emissions at all. Coulter said such a finding 'goes against really well-established science' and would likely not stand up in court.
Climate Denial Tactics
President Donald Trump called climate change the 'greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world' last year during a speech at the United Nations. Geoffrey Supran, director of the Climate Accountability Lab at the University of Miami, asked, 'Who needs Big Oil to deny climate science, undermine science-based decision-making and endanger peoples' lives and livelihoods when the U.S. government will do it for them?' Ben Franta, an associate professor of climate litigation at the University of Oxford, said, 'The government can choose to deny reality.' Franta added, 'But the real damages from global warming will continue to accumulate, from heat waves and fires to superstorms and floods, and calls for accountability will only increase.'
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