President Donald Trump’s administration is expected Monday to scrap limits on carbon emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants, the source of nearly a quarter of the country’s climate pollution.
Records showed authorities concluded their review of the two related regulatory items on Friday, with the rollout set to be announced by Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin during a G20 energy ministers’ meeting in Houston, Bloomberg News and the New York Times reported. The changes would both roll back rules introduced by former president Joe Biden’s administration in 2024 which required coal and gas power plants to eliminate nearly all their carbon emissions — and go further, by proposing to prevent future regulations.
They noted that the technical repeal, at least in the draft phase, stated that the EPA had the authority to regulate greenhouse emissions but found the Biden government went about it the wrong way. It builds on the government’s decision in February to overturn the 2009 Endangerment Finding, the scientific determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare.
“Our government is ignoring the reality all around us that people are feeling every day of the impacts of climate change, and just putting their heads in the sand and saying, ‘We don’t care, it’s not our problem, next generation, figure it out yourselves,'” said Hankins.
