The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is poised to formally repeal carbon pollution standards for coal- and gas-fired power plants, according to reports.
The Trump administration’s latest climate rollback is expected to come as soon as Monday on the sidelines of the G۲۰ energy ministers’ meeting in Houston, Texas, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, is expected to announce the move in Houston to erase the planet-heating pollution that gets pumped into the air during oil and gas burning, the New York Times reported.
Such a move would almost certainly face legal challenges but if it survived, this rollback of pollution standards could reduce the agency of future administrations to control climate emissions.
Environmental groups condemned the expected move.
“The Sierra Club will fight back against this reckless and dangerous proposal with everything we have in the courts, in Congress, and in communities across the country,” said Holly Bender, the Sierra Club’s chief program officer.
She added: “While wildfires rage, floods devastate communities, and families struggle to afford skyrocketing electricity bills and insurance premiums, the Trump administration is handing the fossil fuel industry a license to keep polluting. This is full-throated climate denial while the climate crisis happens in real time and a shocking betrayal of the American public.”
Last year, Donald Trump’s administration proposed repealing rules passed under Joe Biden to curb emissions of carbon dioxide, mercury and other air pollutants from power plants.
This week, the EPA is finalizing a piece of the initial proposal, and agency officials also plan to propose a separate rule repealing the federal finding that greenhouse gases from power plants specifically pose a threat, Bloomberg said.
The EPA did not respond to a request for comment outside business hours.
Trump has long backed promoting the interests of oil and gas and has stepped up efforts in his second term in the White House to remove environmental regulations he argues are unnecessary barriers to industrial development and expanded energy production.
Climate advocates and experts have described the rollbacks as gifts to polluters at the expense of the planet, Americans’ public health and economic wellbeing.
Biden’s carbon emission rules for power plants would have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by ۱bn metric tons by ۲۰۴۷, a crucial part of his administration’s fight against the climate crisis.
The electricity sector is responsible for nearly a quarter of US greenhouse gas pollution.
Reuters contributed reporting
