Trump administration removes climate pollution limits on power plants, seeks to block future carbon rules
By Sadaf Sundas Riaz -- SCN NEWS
WASHINGTON/HOUSTON, Sept. 14, 2026: President Donald Trump's administration on Monday repealed federal limits on greenhouse-gas emissions from coal- and natural-gas power plants and opened a second regulatory front aimed at preventing future administrations from imposing similar restrictions, completing one of the most consequential reversals of U.S. climate policy during Trump's second term. The Environmental Protection Agency announced the measures as international officials gathered in Houston for a G20 energy ministers meeting focused on energy security, baseload generation and regulatory efficiency.
The repeal dismantles carbon standards adopted under President Joe Biden in 2024. Those requirements would have forced certain coal-fired plants and new natural-gas generators to sharply reduce emissions, including through carbon-capture technology, or change their operating plans over the coming decade. EPA had estimated the Biden standards would eliminate about 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse-gas emissions through 2047.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin framed the reversal as an energy and affordability measure, arguing that removing federal restrictions will make it easier to build generating capacity as electricity demand accelerates from data centres, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and broader electrification. The administration says repealing the restrictions will remove more than $300 billion in industry costs, while utilities and coal-industry groups argue the previous requirements threatened grid reliability and encouraged premature closure of fossil-fuel plants.
The action, however, goes substantially further than simply cancelling one Biden-era regulation. EPA also announced a separate proposal designed to establish that greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil-fuel power plants do not meet the Clean Air Act threshold necessary for federal regulation. If that interpretation survives the rulemaking process and expected litigation, it could make it considerably harder for a future administration to restore nationwide power-sector carbon limits without first overcoming the legal framework Trump officials are now constructing.
That second step may ultimately prove more consequential than Monday's repeal itself. Fossil-fuel power plants account for nearly one-quarter of U.S. greenhouse-gas pollution, making electricity generation the country's second-largest major source after transportation. The administration argues that U.S. power-sector emissions represent a declining share of a global problem and do not satisfy the statutory test for regulation. Environmental organizations counter that the Clean Air Act requires EPA to address dangerous pollution and have pledged immediate court challenges.
The rollback also builds on a broader restructuring of federal climate regulation. Earlier this year, EPA revoked the longstanding scientific “endangerment finding” that had provided the central legal foundation for regulating greenhouse gases from vehicles. The administration has separately reversed or weakened environmental regulations affecting cars, trucks and power plants while promoting expanded production and continued operation of coal and natural gas facilities.
Not every federal pollution control affecting power stations disappears with Monday's action. Regulations governing pollutants including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides remain, as do some mercury and acid-gas requirements, while states retain authority to impose their own environmental standards. EPA had already finalized a separate repeal in February of certain 2024 amendments strengthening Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for coal- and oil-fired power plants.
The legal battle is likely to determine how durable Trump's restructuring becomes. Environmental and public-health groups say they will challenge both the carbon-rule repeal and the attempt to constrain future greenhouse-gas regulation. The dispute will therefore reach beyond whether Biden's 2024 standards survive: courts may be asked to decide how much authority EPA retains under the Clean Air Act to regulate climate pollution from one of America's largest emitting sectors.