The Trump administration is expected to announce a two-part rollback of EPA carbon limits for fossil fuel power plants. The first part would repeal the 2024 Biden-era Clean Air Act standards that required existing coal plants and new gas plants to cut CO2 emissions by up to 90 percent over time. The second part would go further and argue the EPA has no legal authority to regulate greenhouse gases from the power sector at all. The move builds on the administration's earlier decision to overturn the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which formally tied greenhouse gas emissions to public health risks. Legal experts note an internal contradiction: the technical repeal assumes EPA has authority but used bad standards, while the proposed rule says no authority exists. That tension is likely to be tested in court. The timing is notable because the announcement comes after the hottest summer on record in the US. If the EPA stops treating CO2 as a pollutant, it could affect state-level climate programs, power plant investment decisions, and how future administrations try to restore federal climate regulation.
