WASHINGTON (AP)—The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it is repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas and announced it is taking a separate but related step to prevent future administrations from regulating climate pollution from power plants.
The rule change, first proposed last year, represents a fundamental shift from efforts by Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama to address climate change and clean up industrial pollution.
Gov. Mark Gordon welcomed the move to eliminate “onerous restrictions regarding greenhouse gases,” he said in a prepared statement. “Under my administration, Wyoming litigated over the ability of the Biden Administration to regulate greenhouse gases and this is just further good news for our fossil fuel industry and our economy.”
Environmental groups decried the change, saying it would come at a cost to Americans’ health and further degrade the environment.
“Instead of prioritizing lowering energy prices, the Trump administration is set on raising them by locking in expensive, volatile fossil fuel markets that leave states like Wyoming with higher costs and fewer opportunities for jobs, investment and tax revenue,” Sierra Club Wyoming Chapter Climate and Energy Organizer Emma Jones said. “Meanwhile, wind and solar have consistently kept our rates lower and reduced risk for customers. This repeal absolutely stacks the deck to the benefit of the fossil fuel industry.”
Revoking the Biden-era power plant rule would save industry more than $300 billion in costs and help “unleash” American energy, the EPA said. The change will allow utilities to make the best decisions for their ratepayers rather than be forced to close aging or inefficient plants, said EPA Assistant Administrator Aaron Szabo.
The power plant rule, to take effect soon after publication in the Federal Register, is expected to face immediate legal challenges.
Environmental groups also are likely to challenge the separate rule proposed Monday that could prevent future administrations from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The proposal, expected to be made final next year, follows on EPA’s action earlier this year revoking a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.
The February action eliminated all greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks. The new plan would apply similar logic to a broader undoing of climate regulations on stationary sources such as power plants.
In addition to health and human-caused climate warming implications, Wyoming has much at stake.
Unlike other coal-producing regions in the U.S. that sell a different type of coal to steelmakers around the globe, Wyoming coal production is dependent almost entirely on U.S. customers that burn the commodity to generate electricity, making Wyoming’s industry particularly vulnerable. Though the administration’s rollback could help extend the life of some aging coal-fired power plants in the Equality State, like the Dave Johnston plant outside Glenrock, Gordon and other local coal proponents have been fighting the Biden-era rules because Wyoming coal mines serve nearly half the nation’s coal-fired power plants.
Yet, a University of Wyoming analysis suggests the average age of power plants served by Wyoming coal is 41 years. That makes retiring greenhouse gas-emitting coal plants the obvious option rather than “permanently” stripping the EPA’s authority to do so in the face of a dangerously warming plant, according to Sierra Club’s Wyoming Chapter.
“While wildfires rage, floods devastate communities and families struggle to afford skyrocketing electricity bills and insurance premiums, the Trump administration is handing the fossil fuel industry a license to keep polluting,” Sierra Club Chief Program Officer Holly Bender said. “This is full-throated climate denial while the climate crisis happens in real time and a shocking betrayal of the American public.”
The Obama- and Biden-era rules were intended to push coal plants to retire before technology could catch up to eventually commercialize carbon capture throughout the fleet, Wyoming Mining Association Executive Director Travis Deti said. Eliminating the rules gives the industry the opportunity to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions while still meeting booming electrical demand.
“We’re going to need all the energy we can produce in this country in the coming years, and we’ve got to have coal as part of the mix,” Deti said.
