EPA eliminates restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants

By Katie Dusza, Managing Editor

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared that it will erase limits on pollution from power plants that is created by the burning of coal and gas. This completes the Trump administration’s efforts to erase the most significant environmental protections put in place by the Biden and Obama administrations. 

This effort poses a threat to protections that future administrations wish to put in place regarding greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. This ruling will take effect despite vast warnings from scientists saying that industrialized countries, including the United States, should take immediate action to cut carbon emissions because global warming and its effects are rapidly accelerating. The power industry is the second largest source of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions in the country. 

The EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, according to the New York Times, accused the Obama and Biden administrations of waging a “war on coal” and blamed the former administration’s efforts for closures of many coal plants. The EPA also stated that greenhouse gases “have no material impact on global climate change. In fact, if all carbon dioxides were eliminated tomorrow, there would be no meaningful climate impact.” 

Throughout President Trump's second term, the EPA has erased greenhouse gas standards for car tailpipes as well as softening regulations on harmful chemicals to the environment used in air–conditioners and refrigerators.

Earlier this year, the EPA repealed the endangerment finding, which simply states that carbon dioxide, methane and four other greenhouse gases threaten human health. By repealing the finding, the Trump administration is essentially denying overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change exists. Since the Trump Administration's second term, the EPA has stopped estimating public health benefits and focus on monetary benefits.