Trump administration completes repeal of most power plant carbon emissions standards

The Trump administration on Sept. 14 completed the repeal of a majority of greenhouse gas emissions limits imposed on coal- and gas-fired power plants during the Biden administration, and proposed the repeal of additional greenhouse gas regulations.

US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin made the announcement Sept. 14 at the G20 Energy Abundance Ministerial conference in Houston, saying the repeal will save $310 billion.

At the same time, the EPA also proposed to rescind "every remaining greenhouse gas standard for the power sector," which Zeldin said in a news release would save an additional "$370 million in direct compliance costs, in addition to the billions more American families and businesses can expect to see saved across the economy." This proposal, which would affect coal plant standards set during the Obama administration, has a 45-day comment period.

A Trump administration official said during a press call that under the newly finalized repeal, consumer electricity prices are expected to decline by 2035, though the administration did not provide a specific figure.

The repeals only impact carbon standards, and the agency will retain oversight of criteria pollutants and hazardous air pollutants to safeguard human health, the EPA said.

"They would remain in place to safeguard human health," a Trump administration official said during the press call. The announcement follows the February repeal of the agency's 2009 finding that GHG emissions endanger public health and can be regulated. That decision was the basis for subsequent regulations of emissions from vehicles, power plants and oil and gas operations, and the February action has been challenged in federal court. The power plant rule will likely face similar legal challenges once finalized.

"This necessary reversal restores efficiency to our energy sector and allows our vital resources to be used for the benefit of the American people," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, also chairman of the National Energy Dominance Council, said in a statement.

Environmental groups immediately promised to challenge the Trump administration's action.

"With millions of Americans facing wildfires, heat waves and deadly storms fueled by climate change, the Trump administration is cutting the biggest polluters loose to do more damage than ever," Meredith Hankins, federal climate legal director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. "For the health of our families and good of our nation, this cannot stand."

Future limits on EPA actions

The proposed rule to repeal all GHG standards in the power sector would also block future EPA efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants to address global climate change.

"It would prevent a future EPA from being able to regulate greenhouse gas emissions for global climate change for power plants," the Trump administration official said. Citing Section 111 of the Clean Air Act, the official argued the Biden administration "relied on technology that had not been adequately demonstrated." The Trump administration has said the Biden-era EPA's requirement for coal- and natural gas-fired plants to install carbon capture technology was an action beyond the agency's authority.

"The Biden administration didn't care that they were closing plants or that American jobs would be lost," the official continued.

Matthew Leopold, a partner at Holland & Knight and former EPA general counsel from 2018 to 2020, during the first Trump administration, said the EPA has a strong legal case if the decision is challenged. "That seems to be a perfectly good rationale for rescinding the GHG standards that we adopted under the Biden administration," Leopold said to Platts, part of S&P Global Energy. "Because carbon capture and sequestration has not materialized for power plants."

The US power sector remains the nation's largest stationary source of climate-warming emissions, accounting for 23% of the total US footprint in 2023, according to the EPA. The agency no longer inventories greenhouse gas emissions as part of the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda, but other organizations provide estimates. Climate research firm the Rhodium Group reported in January that US power sector emissions rose 3.8% in 2025, marking the second consecutive annual increase since 2012-2013.