Overview
- The EPA is expected to formally rescind the 2024 carbon pollution standards for coal- and gas-fired power plants and to propose a separate repeal of a power-plant-specific endangerment finding, according to multiple reports.
- The change targets rules that would have required existing and future fossil-fuel plants to deploy emissions controls such as carbon capture and to limit related air pollutants.
- The action was timed to coincide with a G20 energy ministers meeting in Houston and is reported to have been finalized on Monday, pending an official agency announcement.
- Democratic-led states and environmental groups have said they will sue and legal experts say the repeal is vulnerable because courts have narrowed EPA authority in past rulings.
- The Biden EPA estimated the 2024 rule would deliver roughly $120 billion in public-health benefits by 2047 and prevent thousands of premature deaths, benefits that the current action would eliminate if it survives litigation.