<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is set to roll back pollution standards for fossil fuel power plants, a measure that proponents argue will strengthen the power grid and lower customer costs. However, environmentalists contend that this action will exacerbate climate change.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The EPA is expected to announce the final rule on Monday at the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Abundance in Houston, Texas, according to a source familiar with the EPA’s plans. This action would represent a significant reversal of emissions reduction regulations implemented during the Biden administration.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The standards in question were finalized under the Biden administration and mandated that new and existing plants reduce carbon pollution by installing carbon capture, sequestration, and storage technology. Industry representatives have stated that the technology required to meet these standards is not yet available and that the rules would effectively lead to the closure of many plants.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A source with knowledge of the EPA's plan indicated that the final rule would rescind key provisions of the 2024 power plant rule, including the elimination of carbon capture requirements, while maintaining certain efficiency standards for new and reconstructed combustion turbines.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Additionally, the EPA is proposing a supplemental rule and initiating a public comment period regarding the potential removal of all greenhouse gas requirements for fossil fuel power plants, including the 2015 standards for new coal-fired power plants and other aspects of the 2024 power plant rule.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The EPA announced plans to undo these standards in June. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated at that time that the final rule would “deliver savings to American families on electricity bills, and it will ensure that they have the electricity that they need today.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Zeldin argued that the Biden standards aimed to eliminate coal, oil, and gas. The Trump administration's EPA has sought to repeal climate-related rules established during the Biden administration.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Power plant emission standards have been a subject of regulatory contention since former President Barack Obama, whose administration's rule on power plant pollution was stayed by the Supreme Court. The first Trump administration proposed a more limited rule, but the D.C. Circuit Court later deemed it illegal just before Biden took office.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">During the Biden administration, the Supreme Court limited the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon emissions in the case of West Virginia v. EPA. Subsequently, the Biden administration finalized a new regulation on carbon pollutants for power plants, designed to comply with the Supreme Court ruling.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The reversal of this regulation is expected to lead to further legal disputes.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Fossil fuel power plants are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 5% of global emissions since 1990.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This regulatory rollback is part of a broader effort by the agency to follow up on its repeal of the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which concluded that six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, pose a threat to public health and welfare.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In January, American Petroleum Institute President Mike Sommers noted that the group supported repealing the Endangerment Finding but did not endorse the repeal of greenhouse gas regulations for power plants and other stationary industrial facilities. “We would not support repealing the endangerment finding for stationary sources, and one of the reasons why we wouldn’t support that is because we do support the federal regulation of methane,” Sommers stated.</p>