Trump's EPA repeals the last major federal rule limiting power plant emissions

According to a piece published Friday by Kathryn Krawczyk on Canary Media, the Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency has repealed the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards, Biden-era rules that required fossil fuel power plants to sharply cut emissions, capture them, or shut down. The move completes the dismantling of major federal climate regulations for the power sector built up across the Obama and Biden administrations.

Despite the rollback, power-sector emissions have already fallen substantially through market forces rather than regulation: the country hit the original Clean Power Plan's decarbonization targets a decade ahead of schedule as utilities retired coal plants in favor of cheaper natural gas and renewables. That economic trend is expected to continue regardless of the rule change.

Still, Canary Media reports that the pace of the transition will likely slow without a federal enforcement backstop. "The transition would almost certainly happen faster with emissions regulations in place. For now, however, that's off the table in America," the outlet notes, leaving state-level policy and market economics as the primary drivers of further power-sector decarbonization.

Kathryn Krawczyk, Canary Media: https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/emissions-reduction/trumps-epa-gut-climate-rules-power-plants-what-now