WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to repeal Biden-administration rules meant to curb carbon dioxide, mercury and other air pollutant emissions from power plants, following through on a promise the agency made in March, agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said on Wednesday.
The announcement is a key step in President Donald Trump’s broader efforts to unwind environmental regulations he views as unnecessary barriers to industrial development and expanded energy production.
“EPA is taking an important step, reclaiming sanity and sound policy, illustrating that we can both protect the environment and grow the economy,” Zeldin said at EPA headquarters.
Zeldin had announced in March his intent to unwind three dozen existing agency air and water rules. Wednesday’s announcement focuses on carbon emission and mercury regulations and launches the formal process to repeal those regulations.
The EPA has already exempted 47 companies from regulations to curb mercury and air toxics for their coal-fired power plants for two years, according to a list of facilities published by the Environmental Protection Agency in April.
That move is intended to prevent power plants from having to retire as the U.S. faces an expected jump in electricity demand linked to a surge in datacenter construction.
Zeldin said that datacenters will eat up 10% of U.S. electricity supply within 10 years, up from 3 to 4% currently and that more gas and coal power will be needed to “make America the AI capital of the world.”
The Biden administration’s carbon emission rules for power plants would have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 1 billion metric tons by 2047, and formed a crucial part of its broader agenda to fight climate change.
The electricity sector is responsible for nearly a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution.
Zeldin said that if finalized, the rules would mean that no power plant would be able to emit more than they emit today or as much as they did a year or two ago.
The proposal has two parts: the first would repeal the carbon pollution standards finalized last year by the Biden EPA calling for carbon emission reductions from existing coal- and new gas-fired power plants; the second strengthened the 2012 mercury and air toxics rule, requiring continuous monitoring requirements.
Environmental groups slammed the proposal as damaging to public health.
“These regressive proposals are bad for public health and bad for climate, all to prop up some of the highest polluting power plants in the nation,” said Shaun Goho, legal director at Clean Air Task Force.
They also said while Zeldin focused on the high costs of companies needing to comply with the regulations, the agency has ignored their benefits.
“Eliminating Biden-era power plant standards will erase $240 billion in climate benefits and $120 billion in public health savings,” said Evergreen Action Senior Power Sector Policy Lead Charles Harper.
Meanwhile, the mining industry as well as some Republican lawmakers in coal-and-gas producing regions welcomed the announcement.
“Today’s announcement nullifies two of EPA’s most consequential air rules, removing deliberately unattainable standards and leveling the playing field for reliable power sources, instead of stacking the deck against them,” said National Mining Association President Rich Nolan.
Rob Bresnahan, a Pennsylvania congressman whose district will have nine new data center projects in the coming years, said repealing the power plant rules will enable more gas plants to come online to help it power its new surge of electricity demand.
“The simple fact is we need more power on the grid to power all of this,” he said.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Hugh Lawson; editing by Diane Craft)
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