{"id":625007,"date":"2026-09-15T03:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T03:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625007\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T03:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T03:32:14","slug":"us-ends-limits-on-coal-and-gas-plant-emissions-removing-key-tool-to-battle-climate-crisis-us-environmental-protection-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625007\/","title":{"rendered":"US ends limits on coal and gas plant emissions, removing key tool to battle climate crisis | US Environmental Protection Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the heels of the hottest summer ever recorded<\/a> in the US, the Trump administration has said it will erase any limits on emissions from coal and gas plants that are dangerously heating up our planet.<\/p>\n

The US Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> said it will strip itself of its ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions coming from power plants under the Clean Air Act, removing a key tool to address the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

By erasing any limits on such emissions from coal and gas plants, the Trump administration<\/a> has severely limited any future administration\u2019s ability to curb this pollution.<\/p>\n

The EPA calculated<\/a> the move will result in 123m metric tons of additional carbon emissions in the next decade, and save power plant operators $370m in direct compliance costs. Lee Zeldin, the agency administrator said the Trump administration is protecting American energy from a \u201cwar on coal\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans will see a decrease in electricity prices, but this is just the beginning,\u201d said Zeldin, who unveiled the reversal of the 2024 carbon pollution standards at a G20 meeting in Houston on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working to go even further so that American energy can be fully unleashed. Realizing the full potential of American energy means more jobs, lower prices and a more prosperous America.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EPA said that greenhouse gas emissions from power plants have \u201cno material impact on global climate change\u201d. This is despite the fact that US electricity generation is responsible for a quarter<\/a> of the country\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions. If the sector were itself a country, it would be<\/a> the fifth largest carbon polluter in the world, after China, the US, India and Russia.<\/p>\n

Trump, who has called the climate crisis \u201cbullshit\u201d and \u201ca hoax\u201d, earlier this year overturned<\/a> the foundational 2009 EPA endangerment finding \u2013 spurred by a supreme court ruling \u2013 that greenhouse gases pose a significant threat to public health and the environment.<\/p>\n

This has opened the way for the administration to scrub out any limits on the planet-heating gases that are causing our world to rapidly overheat and worsen deadly heatwaves, drought, wildfires and floods. In February, the EPA eliminated pollution standards for cars and trucks as part of a series of actions Zeldin described as \u201cdriving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion\u201d.<\/p>\n

Environmental groups immediately vowed to challenge the latest rollback in court. \u201cThis is full-throated climate denial while the climate crisis happens in real time and a shocking betrayal of the American public,\u201d said Holly Bender, chief program officer at the Sierra Club.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sierra Club will fight back against this reckless and dangerous proposal with everything we have in the courts, in Congress, and in communities across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it issued the latest carbon pollution standards for power plants under Joe Biden\u2019s administration in 2024, the EPA found the rules would slash 1bn tonnes of greenhouse gases by 2047 and deliver $370bn in net benefits.<\/p>\n

The rules also would have prevented 1,200 premature deaths and 360,000 asthma attacks in 2035 alone, due to air quality improvements. Under Trump, however, the EPA has eliminated the dollar benefit of saving lives through reduced air pollution in its calculations.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery American deserves to breathe clean air, but time and again this administration gives a green light to more pollution at the expense of our health,\u201d said Gina McCarthy, who was administrator of the EPA under Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone will be affected by their actions, but the most vulnerable among us, our kids and grandkids, will suffer the most. Today\u2019s decision lets the nation\u2019s biggest industrial polluters off the hook by reversing findings the agency itself established.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has long championed the use of fossil fuels, such as coal and gas, pushing a \u201cdrill, baby drill\u201d approach that has opened up more land for extraction while demolishing clean air and water regulations the industry said it found too onerous.<\/p>\n

As well as handing out hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to prop up coal plants, which have struggled economically in recent years, the Trump administration has sought to directly strangle clean energy projects such as solar and offshore wind.<\/p>\n

The latest EPA intervention will probably be significant, if it survives legal challenge, as it will stymie any future attempt to restrict carbon pollution from power plants. It is the latest episode in a decade-long saga over how, or if, the US tames its power emissions.<\/p>\n

In 2016 the supreme court knocked down Obama\u2019s clean power plan. A more narrow version, with the parameters set again by the court, was then enacted under Biden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the heels of the hottest summer ever recorded in the US, the Trump administration has said it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-625007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}