From Slate Magazine · Ian Prasad Philbrick · · 2m
Trump's plan to lock out future climate rules
Two new EPA proposals would erase power plant carbon limits and try to make sure no future president can bring them back.
In brief
Two new EPA proposals would erase power plant carbon limits and try to make sure no future president can bring them back. The real target isn't just today's rules, it's the legal basis any future administration would need to regulate power plant emissions at all. Originally reported by Slate Magazine.
Two rules, one goal
The Trump administration moved to scrap existing limits on climate pollution from power plants and to block future administrations from writing new ones. Court challenges are already expected.
Undoing Obama and Biden
Both administrations used the Clean Air Act to cut greenhouse gases. Trump, who calls climate change a "con job" and has twice exited international agreements, is reversing that work.
“a “con job””
The coal excuse
The first rule would kill Biden-era carbon limits on coal and gas plants, arguing they don't pollute significantly because they are a small slice of global emissions. Coal is still the dirtiest fossil fuel.
“a small and decreasing part of global emissions”
The bigger swing
The second proposal goes further. It claims power plant emissions as a category don't even meet the Clean Air Act's threshold for EPA regulation, cutting off the agency's authority at the root.
Why power plants matter
The U.S. power industry is the second-largest source of planet-warming emissions at home, behind transportation, and the second-largest producer worldwide.
The endangerment finding fell first
Earlier this year Trump rescinded the EPA's finding that greenhouse gases threaten human health, the legal foundation of federal climate regulation for nearly two decades.
A wider rollback
He has also lifted tailpipe emission limits, canceled billions in clean energy funding for blue states, and delayed phaseouts of chemicals that trap heat far better than carbon dioxide.
The savings don't add up
Officials say the rules raise electricity costs. The EPA's own assessments found repeal will barely move utility bills or rescue a coal industry in decline, while saving fossil fuel companies billions.
Courts lean the wrong way
States and green groups will sue, but cases take years. The Supreme Court's conservative majority already narrowed EPA power plant authority in 2022 and blocked Obama's Clean Power Plan in 2016.
“irreparable harm”
What it costs in lungs
Biden's power plant rules were projected to prevent up to 1,200 premature deaths and 360,000 asthma attacks in 2035 alone. States are stepping up, but they can't offset a hostile White House.
Here's the gist
The real target isn't just today's rules, it's the legal basis any future administration would need to regulate power plant emissions at all.
