The Trump administration announced Wednesday plans to repeal “all ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions standards for the power sector,” as well as Biden-era Mercury and Air Toxins Standards “that directly result in coal-fired power plants having to shut down,” the federal agency said.
“These Biden-era regulations have imposed massive costs on coal-, oil- and gas-fired power plants, raising the cost of living for American families, imperiling the reliability of our electric grid and limiting American energy prosperity,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a press release Wednesday afternoon.
Wyoming politicians and coal proponents cheered the news.
“Today, I welcome the proposed repeal by the EPA of the so-called Clean Power Plan Version 2 that [EPA] Administrator Lee Zeldin and I have discussed over the past several months, and I encourage him to proceed with it with all due urgency,” Gov. Mark Gordon said in a prepared statement. “The lopsided and misguided policies of the Biden administration have already wreaked enough havoc on our nation’s power supply and delayed our progress providing the beautiful clean coal President Donald Trump recognizes as essential to having a reliable, affordable and dispatchable energy supply for our nation.”
Wyoming is the nation’s largest coal producer, and more than 90% of the commodity is shipped to coal-burning electric generating plants in the U.S. The state’s coal mining industry has declined precipitously since 2008, while many communities that rely on mining — as well as coal power plants — have struggled to chart an economic future.
Electric utilities have cited federal regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions, as well as emissions of toxic metals, for retiring coal power plants. But they’ve also pointed to cheap natural gas as an alternative at the same facilities and the fact that most coal plants in the nation are simply too old to affordably operate.
If utilities still choose to close down a coal-fired power plant due to aging facilities or to cater to customer preferences for renewables and other cleaner forms of energy, “that’s on them,” EPA Region 8 Administrator Cyrus Western told WyoFile. But they will no longer be forced to shut down coal plants due to federal emissions regulations.
“This [repeal] gives those utilities the ability to turn around and say, ‘We now don’t have to deal with the regulations that were putting us in these really difficult situations,’ where they’re having to increase these utility bills by 20%, by 30% you know, which, obviously, we saw in Wyoming,” said Western, a Republican and former Wyoming lawmaker. “These regulated, required shutdowns are no longer a fact. That is a priority of [EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin] and the White House — to ensure that we keep these open. And if [some are] shutting down purely for economic reasons, it’s not because it’s the EPA breathing down their necks and forcing them to introduce early shutdowns.”
The repeal
EPA intends to repeal what’s commonly referred to as the “power plant rules” first established under the Obama administration. The original rules were based on the premise that greenhouse gases that contribute to the climate crisis are a pollutant, and the Obama administration admitted that the more stringent standards would require existing and new coal-fired power plants to employ carbon capture technologies to meet them.
The power plant rules were immediately mired in lawsuits, while the EPA oscillated in imposing the rules between the first Trump and Biden administrations. The U.S. Supreme Court in October declined to halt the EPA rules in the last months of the Biden administration, making Wyoming officials nervous right before the November presidential election.
Now, under President Donald Trump, the EPA is challenging the long-held notion that greenhouse gas emissions from power plants should be considered a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, according to the agency.
“EPA is proposing that greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution within the meaning of the statute,” the agency said.
Western added, “The people of Wyoming want affordable, reliable electricity — and they deserve it. Protecting access to low-cost, dependable power ensures families can keep the lights on without breaking the bank.”
I suppose coal miners and politicians who champion coal mining and its expansion do not care that Coal Worker’s Pneumoconiosis (CWP) — Black Lung Disease to most of us — still befalls coal miners, still has no cure, and still is a debilitating disease (that is ultimately fatal). In fact, cases of CWP are on the rise, and mining practices and equipment now in use create a finer silica dust that is even more damaging to one’s lungs.
Miners put their health at risk every day, and have bought into the misinformed notion that coal mining will be the answer to the U.S.’s and the world’s answer to the energy crisis. There are cleaner forms of energy — for both humans and the natural world. Yes, every form of energy production has its downside, but with the exception of oil drilling, no other form of energy — from its base production to its effect on the environment — is as detrimental as coal mining and coal burning plants.
The Trump Administration and EPA are not “challenging that greenhouse emissions from power plants are a pollutant.” They are rewriting scientific data!
Experts have done research. Experts have reported the facts. The Trump Administration and politicians like Wyoming’s governor ignore the facts — putting people’s health at continued risk, putting the environment’s health at continued risk — all for the short-term benefit of the almighty dollar.
I’m puzzled. I hear how coal is cheap energy to heat your house with. Where is that at, neighbors here are paying $400 to $600 a month in the winter.
The phrase used by Guv Gordo on behalf of our Dear Leader Donald who likely can’t find Wyoming on a map , to wit: ” … beautiful clean coal …” is one of the most absurd oxymorons of our era. Those who can discuss Coal only in economic terms using financial filters that block out the wider realities of environmental consequences , public health , and the apolitical apocalypse that is Climate Change are leading us to the abyss by boot and hoof. Jobs and money are transient on the planetary scale… here today but gone tomorrow. Wyoming is chronically derelict about planning for tomorrow, preferring instead to remain in the past. Burning coal is s-o-o-o Victorian Era. It deserves to go the way of whale oil.
I’d like to think Wyoming leadership can come out of denial when it comes to mitigating Climate Change — the only thing that truly matters. Use this to adjust the scale of your perspective: peak employment in the American coal industry came in 1925 when there were over 800,000 coal jobs coast to coast at a time when the national population was 1/3rd what it is today. A century later ( here and now ) the coal industry is dying. So be it. Time to move on and quit kicking the dying hydrocarbon horse with steel-toed cowboy boots.
Except we won’t. Wyoming insists on applying fossil thinking to the issues surrounding fossil fuel. What is to be gained in the end for remaining so adamantly Antediluvian around here ?
This will all change under the next administration- if Trump lasts that long. He is old and is not immune to stumbling and bumbling.
It is very sad that so may cannot face the reality that coal is going away either now or later. Yes,, government is trying to push the economy away from coal into cleaner alternatives with fossil fuels being eventually eliminated. Americans have had a free ride with cheap energy and products at the expense of the environment we live in. Will is raise the cost to each of us? Yes, because we (and especially the rich) have had the gravy train at the expense of the world and future generations. Down the road our kids and grand kids get to pay the price for those boats, RVs, and side by sides. No other country lives like us, with our selfish waste and exploitation of natural resources.
Great news! Bring good paying jobs back. Cheap electricity rates is GOOD for all.
As long as we are apparently going backwards why not go all the way. The most energy efficient use of coal would be to use it in home heating. I spent a portion of my youth in a house where that was the case. That, however would make for pretty dismal living conditions in our cities and towns in wintertime. One benefit of the regulation of coal burning at electrical generation plants is all the jobs it creates. The manufacture of air and water pollution control equipment and the continued operation of that equipment. That’s something I’ve noticed that the pro-coal community fails to take into account. Much like a town filled with home coal furnaces giant coal burning power plants without air and water pollution control equipment is something we don’t want.
The clean power plan was specifically designed to end coal plants. It was designed to either force conversions to Natural gas or closure, and it takes aim at Natural gas in later years. It was incredibly bad for the entire nation but it lined the renewable sectors pockets.