The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Monday the repeal of a series of Biden-era rules aimed at significantly reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil fuel-based power plants, one of the main sources of the U.S.’ carbon footprint.

In addition to finalizing the repeal of the rules, the EPA also announced a proposal to rescind the 2015 Greenhouse Gas Findings for Fossil Fuel-Fired Power Plants, effectively making it much more difficult for the agency to reinstitute GHG limiting rules for the fossil fuel-fired power generation sector under future administrations.

Environmental groups sharply criticized the EPA announcement, and indicated plans to take legal action to preserve the rules.

According to a 2022 EPA estimate, the electric power sector accounts for approximately 25% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

The agency’s move, announced by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin at a conference of G20 energy ministers, follows initial plans revealed last year to scrap the rules, arguing that GHG emissions from power plants “do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution” within the scope of the underlying regulation, the Clean Air Act.

The regulations targeted by the agency include the Biden and Obama-era GHG emissions standards under the Clean Air Act.

In 2015, under the Obama administration, the EPA implemented the Clean Power Plan to regulate limits for CO2 emissions from coal and natural gas power plants, using its authority under the Clean Air Act, which allowed the agency to take actions to address air pollution problems. The move was designed to promote a shift away from coal to cleaner power sources, such as natural gas and renewables.

After the Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the EPA did not have the authority to devise emissions caps to promote a shift from high-emissions to low-emissions energy generation sources, the Biden administration EPA introduced new standards requiring more CO2 emissions controls to be put in place at fossil fuel-fired power plants, and introducing carbon capture and storage (CCS) requirements for the plants.

The EPA has now repealed most of the 2024 Biden-era standards, including emissions guidelines for existing fossil fuel-fired plants, and CCS requirements for modified coal plants and new natural gas plants. The EPA estimated that the repeal of the rules will save the power sector over $300 billion in compliance costs through 2047.

It has also proposed repealing the 2015 emissions standards, which would effectively repeal all GHG standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants, according to the EPA, and the underlying 2015 GHG findings for fossil-fuel power plants, which established the basis for regulating GHG emissions under the Clean Air Act.

The announcement was widely criticized by environmental groups. Clean transition-focused nonprofit Ceres warned that the repeal would “undermine investment in affordable clean energy technology and U.S. manufacturing, making electricity more expensive for businesses and everyday Americans and hurting America’s global competitiveness,” while the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) estimated that the increased pollution resulting from the EPA move would cause over $1 trillion in additional health costs, and $1.8 trillion in cumulative climate-related harms over the next two decades.

EDF General Counsel Vickie Patton said:

“The Trump EPA is tearing down our national limits on the extensive and dangerous pollution from power plant smokestacks — just as data centers and other drivers are increasing this harmful pollution. Climate pollution is imposing urgent costs and serious health impacts on people’s lives, from the dangerous heat, fire, smoke and drought we experienced this summer to steeper insurance and health care bills that go with those disasters.”

Patton added:

“EDF will oppose this harmful action in court.”