Zeldin calls climate rules 'war on coal' at G20 as EPA ends power-plant limits

EPA to argue in court that greenhouse gases do not endanger health

The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday formally ended federal rules limiting climate-warming emissions from U.S. power plants — the country’s largest industrial source of greenhouse gases — and plans to argue in court that greenhouse gases do not endanger human health or the environment, The New York Times reported. If courts uphold that argument, future administrations may not be able to restore the rules through the Clean Air Act.

“For over 15 years, the Obama and Biden administrations implemented a war on coal to destroy reliable and affordable energy,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement Monday during a Group of 20 energy ministers meeting. “The Trump administration has come in to protect American energy and make sure you can afford to keep the lights on.”

The EPA said repealing the Biden-era emissions standards would save $310 billion over roughly 20 years, The Washington Post reported. In 2014, Biden-administration officials said the standards would bring $370 billion in climate and public-health benefits, and the EPA previously said the policy could save thousands of lives.

President Donald Trump has called climate change a “hoax,” and his administration has focused on fossil fuels such as gas, oil and coal for energy, including the increasing electricity needs of AI data centers. Power plants make the biggest U.S. industrial contribution to climate change.

The World Health Organization has said that extracting and burning those fuels creates greenhouse-gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, which are major contributors to climate change and air pollution, and that climate change affects overall temperatures around the world and can make weather events more extreme.

U.S. agencies continue to publicly acknowledge the established science. “There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate,” NASA states on its climate-change page. “Human activity is the principal cause.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration likewise acknowledges climate change and its dangers on its website.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said her office would challenge the move in court. “The federal administration’s decision to eliminate limits on climate pollution from power plants is catastrophic,” James said in a social-media post. “These are some of our nation’s most essential climate policies. We will take action to protect them.”

Environmental groups said they, too, would sue. Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the EPA “is ending its legal and moral responsibility to end climate pollution.” “This is another nail in the coffin for this administration’s commitment to protecting people and tackling the climate crisis,” Bapna said.