Overview
- The EPA announced on Monday that it has revoked the 2024 Biden-era rules that limited greenhouse-gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants and has proposed a separate rule to strip the agency of future authority to regulate power-sector emissions.
- The agency says the move will save roughly $300–$310 billion, lower electricity prices and protect grid reliability by allowing utilities to keep older coal and gas units operating.
- Environmental and public-health groups condemned the action and pledged court challenges, warning the rollback will raise carbon emissions and increase harmful local pollutants that drive respiratory and cardiovascular illness.
- The decision, made during a G20 energy ministers meeting in Houston, immediately injected legal and market uncertainty for utilities and investors and is likely to prompt litigation over the agency’s legal authority.
- The change follows the EPA’s earlier 2026 revocation of the 2009 endangerment finding that supported climate rules, and it affects a sector that accounts for roughly one-quarter of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions, with critics saying vulnerable communities will bear most health harms.