What does the repeal of power plant pollution limits mean?
The EPA’s repeal concerns climate pollution standards originally finalized by the Biden Administration in 2024. The regulations applied to coal-burning plants in operation and any prospective gas-burning plants, and required coal plants to install technology to capture most of its carbon emissions by 2039 in order to keep operating, while gas plants would have been required to operate on cleaner fuels, like hydrogen.
The Biden Administration predicted that the rule would have prevented up to 1,200 premature deaths, 360,000 cases of asthma symptoms, 48,000 school absence days, and 57,000 lost work days in 2035 alone. It also projected up to $370 billion in climate and public health net benefits over the next two decades.
The repeal of this rule is the latest in the Trump Administration’s attempts to roll back federal climate regulation. In February, the EPA finalized its repeal of the endangerment finding, the landmark 2009 ruling that provided a legal underpinning for greenhouse gas regulation. The agency also ruled that the Clean Air Act does not authorize the EPA to regulate vehicle tailpipe emissions, and eased Biden-era restrictions on hydrofluorocarbons, polluting chemicals used in refrigerators and air-conditioning.
