EPA kills the carbon limits

The agency announced plans to scrap any remaining standards on how much greenhouse gas pollution US power plants may emit. It finalizes the repeal of Biden-era rules and proposes removing the rest.

Demand is rising, not falling

AI, electric vehicles, and returning domestic manufacturing are all pushing power demand up. Dirtier generation now lands on a grid that needs more of it.

A gift to data centers

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has made America "the AI capital of the world" a priority, largely by cutting environmental rules for data centers and the gas and coal plants feeding them.

“A major escalation of President Donald Trump's efforts to promote fossil fuels while making it easier to build out energy-hungry data centers”

Quarter of national emissions

The power sector produces a quarter of US greenhouse gas emissions, second only to transportation. In February the administration already overturned the endangerment finding for vehicles.

The scope argument

EPA claims greenhouse gases are outside its authority because the harms are "global in nature" and too remote to pin on US power plants. The US has emitted more carbon historically than any country.

“too uncertain, conjectural, remote, and convoluted to tie specifically to the U.S. power sector”

The cost of not limiting it

Advocates say the bill arrives as asthma attacks, heatstroke, storm rebuilds, insurance premiums, and health care costs, not as compliance savings.

“Failure to limit climate pollution means more children ending up in the emergency room with asthma attacks and heatstroke”

45 days, then court

The proposal is open for public comment for 45 days and faces near-certain litigation. The Sierra Club has promised to fight it in courts, in Congress, and in communities.

“a license to keep polluting”