Coming soon: Trump administration attacks on protections against climate pollution from power plants

As we reach the end of a summer of intense heat waves, fires, and other climate-related disasters, the Trump administration is moving ahead with its latest attack on our protections against climate change.

This time, the administration's actions could leave us with no national limits on the amount of climate change-causing pollution that power plants can put into our air - and impede EPA from ever setting limits in the future. What is worse, EPA's own analysis found that eliminating these protections would cause thousands of premature deaths and tens of billions of dollars in increased health costs for Americans across the country.

The Trump EPA has sent two measures to the White House for final review. Although it has not disclosed the content of those actions, recent reporting suggests that the measures under review would: 

• First, immediately undo the most important elements of the agency's 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards, which established nationwide limits on climate pollution from power plants. If the final rule matches the administration's earlier proposal, it would remove all limits on carbon pollution from existing coal-fired power plants and eliminate standards requiring that new gas-fired power plants eventually reduce 90% of their carbon pollution.
• Second, propose an even more extreme rule to prevent the agency from regulating climate pollution from the power sector altogether - an action that flies in the face of a 2011 decision by the Supreme Court affirming EPA's authority and responsibility to regulate climate pollution from power plants. Reports say this proposed rule would mirror EPA's action earlier this year repealing the Endangerment Finding - a science-based determination EPA issued in 2009 finding that climate pollution is a threat to human health and well-being. This second action, if finalized after public comment, would effectively remove all nationwide limits on climate pollution from new and existing power plants, including standards for new coal and gas-fired power plants that have been in effect since 2015.

While you prepare to cover this story, here are few more facts that might help: 

Fossil fuel-fired power plants in the U.S. are responsible for massive amounts of climate and health-harming pollution  

• Coal, gas and oil-fired power plants are responsible for about one-quarter of our nation's total climate pollution, second only to the transportation sector. The extensive pollution from these power plants is one of the largest sources of climate-destabilizing pollution in the world.  
• Americans are already suffering from more powerful fires, more extreme storms and floods, and skyrocketing home insurance premiums because of climate change.  
• In the last five years alone, there have been more than 115 weather and climate disasters in the U.S. that cost more than $1 billion.  
• The 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards establish achievable emission limits that allow power companies to reduce pollution through an array of available low and zero-emitting solutions 
• EPA's own estimates found that the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards would save more than 1,200 lives in 2035 alone, would prevent thousands of asthma attacks and other illnesses, and would provide $370 billion in net climate and health benefits through 2047.  
• These protections are especially vital in light of data center growth. (As an example, given anticipated energy demand, proposals for gas power generation increased by 50% in the first half of 2026.) 

EPA has a legal responsibility to address this harmful pollution  

• There is a robust body of science affirming the causes and consequences of climate change.   
• The Clean Air Act requires that EPA issue pollution standards reflecting the "best system of emissions reduction" for harmful pollutants, including climate pollution - a responsibility that the Supreme Court recognized in its 2011 decision in American Electric Power v. Connecticut.  
• The 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards fulfill this obligation by establishing reasonable limits on climate pollution from new gas-fired power plants and existing coal-fired power plants based on available technologies. The standards will achieve lifesaving reductions in pollution while giving power companies the flexibility to use an array of available and cost-effective clean energy technologies to serve customers. 

Clean energy solutions are more affordable and abundant than ever, support grid reliability, and create jobs in communities across our country  

• The Energy Information Administration finds that a large majority of increases in U.S. electricity generating capacity are expected to come from renewables both in the long term and shorter term.   
• A paper by Analysis Group expert Sue Tierney demonstrates that coal-fired generation is less economical than cleaner energy alternatives.   
• A 2025 Department of Energy Report found that solar and wind are the largest employers of all electric power generation industries

These actions are part of the administration's broader efforts to prop up aging, polluting coal plants and block clean, affordable power - increasing electricity and health costs for Americans

• The Trump administration has announced over $1 billion in subsidies to prop up existing uneconomic plants and build new ones - even though 99% of coal plants cost more to run than it would cost to replace them with clean energy. 
• The Trump administration is illegally mandating that six coal plants remain open past their retirement dates, despite local and state plans to replace them with cleaner and cheaper energy resources, and despite the fact that many of the plants have broken down or have not produced electricity at all.  
• The cost to keep those plants on life support amounts to almost $1.5 million per day - $440 million so far. The administration has directed the owners of these plants to recover those costs from American families and businesses.
• The Trump administration has handed out expansive, illegal Clean Air Act exemptions to allow 71 coal-fired power plants across 24 states to ignore modern pollution limits for mercury, arsenic and other toxic pollutants - even though, when asking for these free passes to pollute, many coal plants admitted that they already had technologies to lower their pollution. 
• At the same time, the administration has been blocking, delaying and canceling clean energy projects that can provide low-cost power - efforts that have met with a series of legal defeats in the courts -- and is proposing to limit public participation on air quality permits for data centers and other facilities. 
• A senior policy adviser to President Trump described the administration's approach as "concierge, white glove service" for the fossil fuel industry. And Trump EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced at a recorded National Coal Council meeting that "Many of the items that were on your wish list are now done."  

As reported, these actions would allow fossil fuel power plants to discharge more harmful climate pollution into our air - putting the health, safety and well-being of all Americans at greater risk. EDF will vigorously oppose any effort to weaken our national limits on power plant climate pollution.