Trump administration further curtails limits on coal, gas plants
Coal and natural gas plants will save more than $300 billion as a result of the repeal of the limits on carbon dioxide emissions by the Trump administration on Sept. 14. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency is taking steps to prevent future administrations from regulating climate pollution from power plants.
Dena Adler, a senior attorney at the Institute for Public Integrity, said her organization would not let the EPA’s actions go unchallenged.
“The Supreme Court has made clear that EPA has an obligation to control greenhouse gas emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act,” Adler wrote in a statement following the repeal. “Leaving this pollution unchecked ignores the Supreme Court, puts the public at risk, and flagrantly violates EPA’s legal responsibilities.”
Earlier this year, The EPA rescinded a 2009 declaration that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public and global health, and eliminated all greenhouse gas emissions regulations for cars and trucks.
Pollution from power plants is one of the largest sources of climate-changing pollution, second to the transportation sector.
As early as the mid-1800s, scientists discovered that burning fossil fuels contributes to rising carbon dioxide levels, which trap heat in the atmosphere and drive ever-increasing global temperatures. Nearly 200 countries signed on to the 2015 Paris climate accord, which set a goal to limit global warming to 2.7 degrees by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. The 2030 goal has now been deemed unachievable.
Last year, President Trump called climate change ‘the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world’ in a speech to the United Nations. In 2026, Trump withdrew the U.S., for the second time, from the agreement, leaving only the U.S., Iran, Libya, and Yemen as non-signatories.
The United States, along with China, India, the European Union, the Russian Federation, and Indonesia, emits the most greenhouse gases.
