The Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of scrapping the federal government’s only rule limiting carbon pollution from coal and gas power plants, a move officials say will save the power sector billions of dollars a year.
Quick Take
- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed repealing all greenhouse gas standards for power plants under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act in June 2025.
- EPA says the repeal would save the power sector about 1.2 billion dollars a year over two decades starting in 2026.
- Environmental groups say EPA’s own analysis shows the repeal would raise annual emissions by 123 million tons by 2035.
- The fight traces back to a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that already limited how far EPA can push power plants to cut carbon.
EPA Moves To Undo Biden-Era Power Plant Rules
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced in June 2025 that the agency wants to repeal every greenhouse gas standard covering power plants.
The rule would erase limits set in 2024 under the past administration and also roll back mercury and air toxics amendments that pushed some coal plants toward shutdown. EPA calls the repeal the largest deregulatory action in the agency’s history, saving Americans over a billion dollars a year once finalized.
US EPA poised to repeal carbon standards for gas, coal power plants, Bloomberg News reports https://t.co/4fEmeVWkiB https://t.co/4fEmeVWkiB
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 13, 2026
The proposal now sits with the White House Office of Management and Budget for final review, a signal the rule could become official soon. It was reported that in September, EPA is poised to formally lock in the repeal for both coal and gas plants, citing people familiar with the process.
Zeldin has argued repeatedly that EPA was never authorized to regulate greenhouse gases in the first place, despite decades of court rulings saying otherwise.
A Legal Fight Rooted In A 2022 Supreme Court Case
This repeal did not come out of nowhere. In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia v. EPA that the agency overstepped its power when it tried to force utilities to shift away from coal and gas generation entirely.
The Court said Congress never clearly gave EPA that kind of sweeping authority over the electric grid. That ruling reshaped how every administration since has written power plant rules, forcing narrower, plant-by-plant limits instead of industry-wide mandates.
Americans have long argued Congress, not unelected regulators, should decide questions this big for the American economy. The Clean Air Act’s Section 111 gives EPA authority to set performance standards for pollution sources, but it was never written with climate change in mind.
Treating carbon dioxide like ordinary industrial pollution, then using that label to reshape how the entire country generates electricity, stretches a decades-old law well past what lawmakers intended.
Environmental Groups Push Back Hard
A coalition including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice, Sierra Club, and the Environmental Defense Fund filed formal comments urging EPA to scrap the repeal entirely, calling the agency’s reasoning legally and factually flawed.
The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions pointed to EPA’s own regulatory analysis, arguing the repeal would raise annual emissions by 123 million tons by 2035 and cause 23.4 billion dollars in yearly damages. Resources for the Future put total repeal costs as high as 855 billion dollars.
NRDC says the original 2024 standards were projected to deliver 390 billion dollars in combined health and climate benefits, more than twenty times what industry would spend to comply.
A group of House Democrats led by Representatives Kathy Castor and Paul Tonko wrote directly to EPA, warning the repeal threatens public health and family budgets alike. These are real, quantified objections worth weighing, even if reasonable people can question the models behind them.
Where The Rule Stands Now
EPA has already taken a related, bigger swing at climate rules. In February 2026, the agency finalized the repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding, the legal foundation that let regulators treat greenhouse gases as a public health threat under the Clean Air Act.
Zeldin called it the single largest act of deregulation in American history. Critics, including Politico, note the move all but guarantees a courtroom battle over whether EPA can walk away from a finding upheld by federal courts for over fifteen years.
🚨BREAKING: Trump’s EPA is about to put the final nail in the coffin— killing federal power plant carbon limits and trying to make sure no future administration can ever bring them back.
The agency is expected to announce Monday that it will repeal limits on greenhouse gases… pic.twitter.com/5SSwwPPDr8
— Reich-Wing Watch (@ReichWingWatch) September 14, 2026
Whatever happens next lands in front of judges, not just regulators. Power companies want certainty and lower compliance costs. Environmental groups want enforceable limits they say protect public health. Both sides agree on one thing: this rule will define how much authority EPA holds over the nation’s power grid for years to come.
Sources:
eelp.law.harvard.edu, reuters.com, epa.gov, cnn.com, eenews.net, nypost.com, politico.com, bpr.org, c2es.org, catf.us, rff.org, thenews.coop
