Greenhouse gas emissions: USA lifts climate regulations for power plants

dpa | The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is repealing regulations limiting climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants. The majority of greenhouse gas regulations for US power plants that were introduced under the Democratic administration of previous President Joe Biden will be rolled back, EPA chief Lee Zeldin said at a G20 ministerial meeting in Houston, Texas.

“For more than 15 years, the (Barack) Obama and Biden administrations have waged a war on coal to destroy reliable and affordable energy,” Zeldin was quoted as saying in a statement from his office. President Donald Trump's administration came in to change that. The burning of coal to generate electricity will probably increase by more than tenfold, according to the EPA statement.

The repeal of emissions regulations will most likely be challenged in court in the US. It refers to standards from 2024 that required coal-fired power plants to drastically reduce their climate-damaging emissions. Otherwise, the power plants should cease operations by 2039.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has now proposed repealing all remaining regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants in the future. She argues that, based on the current legal situation, she has no authority to regulate emissions from power plants because of climate change.

In February, the Environmental Protection Agency, following Trump's line, declared greenhouse gases unproblematic and thus overturned the central legal basis for laws to protect the climate. The so-called Endangerment Finding, with which the EPA had classified the most important greenhouse gases, including CO2, as a threat to public health and the well-being of the population since 2009, was canceled.

The USA is one of the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Trump has rolled back various climate protection measures since taking office. In January, the United States officially withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement.