Donald Trump's administration was set to eliminate Environmental Protection Agency rules that curb greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants. The rule change, proposed last year, could be announced as soon as Monday and is expected to face immediate legal challenges, PBS NewsHour reported. A headline in The Hill said Trump had gutted climate rules for coal and gas power plants.
What would the rule change do? The rule change represents a fundamental shift from efforts by Democratic Presidents 
Joe Biden and 
Barack Obama to address climate change and clean up industrial pollution, often in low-income and majority Black or Hispanic communities, PBS NewsHour reported. Biden had made fighting climate change a hallmark of his presidency, and coal-fired power plants would have been forced to capture smokestack emissions or shut down under a strict EPA rule issued in 2024. Two people familiar with the proposal said the rule change also could prevent future administrations from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
What have Zeldin and the EPA said? EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has said the repeal would remove billions of dollars in costs for the industry and help "unleash" American energy. In its proposal last year, the EPA said greenhouse gases from fossil fuel-fired power plants "do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution" or climate change, and so do not meet a Clean Air Act threshold for regulatory action. Zeldin has said the Biden-era rules were designed to "suffocate our economy in order to protect the environment."
Who opposes it? Environmental and public health groups called the rollbacks dangerous and vowed to challenge the rules in court, PBS NewsHour reported. "Tearing down our national protections against climate pollution from power plants will have enormous costs for the health, safety and well-being of families across the country," said Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund. The EPA has a legal responsibility to protect the public from harmful pollution, Patton said.
What did an earlier analysis of the rules find? The rules targeted by Trump's EPA could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they are in effect, according to an Associated Press examination last year that included the agency's own prior assessments and a wide range of other research. Even a partial dismantling of the rules would mean more pollutants such as smog, mercury and lead, and especially more tiny airborne particles that can lodge in lungs and cause health problems, the AP analysis found.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Barack Obama. — JudgeMarket.
