The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday announced a plan to repeal a landmark pollution rule that aims to eliminate most greenhouse gas emissions from power plants in the next decade.
Not only will power plants be able to release more greenhouse gases, but another regulatory rollback will allow them to pollute the air with highly toxic chemicals like mercury.
“By gutting these clean air standards, the EPA is giving a free pass to the nation’s dirtiest power plants and most toxic polluters,” said Democratic Senator from Rhode Island Sheldon Whitehouse in a statement responding to the announcement, as The Washington Post reported. “Pollutants like mercury and greenhouse gases are harmful, a settled scientific fact for decades, and the evidence has only gotten stronger.”
Of course he does. Dirty polluters paid good money for this.
— Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (@whitehouse.senate.gov) June 11, 2025 at 9:14 PM
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said repealing the pollution rules would help “unleash” American energy by removing billions in industry costs, reported The Associated Press.
If the rollbacks are approved and made final, they would reverse efforts made by the Biden administration to improve environmental conditions in communities that are mostly low-income, majority Black or Hispanic and are heavily burdened with industrial pollution.
Public health and environmental groups have said the rollbacks are dangerous and have promised to challenge them in court.
“Ignoring the immense harm to public health from power plant pollution is a clear violation of the law,’’ said Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “If EPA finalizes a slapdash effort to repeal those rules, we’ll see them in court.”
The regulations are among roughly 30 environmental rules targeted by Zeldin in March, on what he referred to as the “most consequential day of deregulation in American history.”
Dr. Lisa Patel, executive director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health, said it was “unconscionable to think that our country would move backwards on something as common sense as protecting children from mercury and our planet from worsening hurricanes, wildfires, floods and poor air quality driven by climate change.”
Appreciate @apnews.com covering this important topic and including my thoughts on Trump's newest assaults on #cleanair and a livable future. #climateaction #climatechange
apnews.com/article/epa-…
— Lisa Patel, MD (@lisapatel.bsky.social) June 12, 2025 at 6:26 PM
The rules could prevent approximately 30,000 deaths annually while saving $275 billion, an Associated Press assessment of the rollbacks showed.
The EPA-targeted regulations will not necessarily be eliminated in their entirety, as they must go through the federal rulemaking process, which can take years; a public comment period; and scientific justification.
However, even partially dismantling the rules would lead to more pollutants like smog, lead and mercury, in addition to greenhouse gases and increased global heating.
The country’s power sector is second only to transportation as its biggest contributor to climate change.
Trump’s EPA has argued that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide produced by power plants “do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution,” so do not meet the Clean Air Act threshold for regulatory action.
Greenhouse gas emissions from gas- and coal-fired power plants “are a small and decreasing part of global emissions,’’ the EPA said. “This Administration’s priority is to promote the public health or welfare through energy dominance and independence secured by using fossil fuels to generate power.”
Gina McCarthy, EPA administrator during the Obama administration, said Zeldin’s “dismantling of our nation’s protections from power plant pollution is absolutely illogical and indefensible. It’s a purely political play that goes against decades of science and policy review,” as The Guardian reported.
“By giving a green light to more pollution, his legacy will forever be someone who does the bidding of the fossil fuel industry at the expense of our health,” McCarthy added. “Everyone will be affected by his actions, but the most vulnerable among us, our kids and grandkids, will suffer the most.”
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