The Trump administration has announced several regulatory rollbacks designed to curb limits on power plant emissions, along with cutting protections for air and water quality. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin on March 12 said the agency is moving to undo at least 31 regulations established during the Biden administration in an effort to support industries including electric utilities, oil and gas exploration, and petrochemicals.
Zeldin on Wednesday said he is following up on President Trump’s executive orders that support the U.S. energy industry and would help streamline permitting and construction of industrial projects. The actions come one day after Zeldin announced the EPA is terminating $20 billion in grants awarded by the Biden administration for climate and clean-energy projects.
“Today is the most consequential day of deregulation in American history,” said Zeldin. “Alongside President Trump, we are living up to our promises to unleash American energy, lower costs for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, and work hand-in-hand with our state partners to advance our shared mission.”
Zeldin said the agency’s actions will eliminate trillions of dollars in regulatory costs and what he called “hidden taxes … Our actions will also reignite American manufacturing, spreading economic benefits to communities,” he wrote in an essay in The Wall Street Journal.
Zeldin also Wednesday said he will reduce the number of U.S. waterways that would face regulation under the Clean Water Act. That measure has been supported by the agriculture and petrochemical industries. Zeldin also said the EPA is prepared to reconsider rules designed to limit emissions from coal- and natural gas-fired power plants, along with rolling back standards on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles that could be sold in the U.S. for model year 2027 and beyond.
‘Malice Toward the Planet’
The EPA chief also is expected to challenge scientific findings from 2009—during the Obama administration—that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health. That finding has been at the center of all the agency’s subsequent regulations on greenhouse gas emissions. The Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona-based group that works to protect endangered species, in a statement said rolling back the endangerment finding threatens “the core basis of federal climate action.”
“The Trump administration’s ignorance is trumped only by its malice toward the planet,” said Jason Rylander, legal director at the center’s Climate Law Institute. “Come hell and high water, raging fires and deadly heatwaves, Trump and his cronies are bent on putting polluter profits ahead of people’s lives. This move won’t stand up in court. We’re going to fight it every step of the way.”
Other environmental groups were quick to criticize the EPA’s moves. Jackie Wong, senior vice president for climate and energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), in an email to POWER said: “Breaking faith with the American people and breaking 50 years of laws of the land, the Environmental Protection Agency today abandoned protecting human health and the environment. Repealing or weakening these important safeguards on pollution from cars, power plants, and oil producers would mean higher energy bills, more asthma and heart attacks, more toxins in drinking water, and more extreme weather.
Wong continued: “At a time when millions of Americans are trying to rebuild after horrific wildfires and climate-fueled hurricanes, it’s nonsensical to try to deny that climate change harms our health and welfare. Still, today’s announcement is only the start of the process—not the end. Before finalizing any of these actions, the law says EPA must propose its changes, justify them with science and the law, and listen to the public and respond to its concerns. NRDCs scientists and lawyers will be there to fight back at every step of the way.”
Alexandra Adams, chief policy advocacy officer at NRDC, in a statement said: “In a staggering spate of actions over just 24 hours, Donald Trump’s EPA told the American people they could no longer count on the federal government to protect them from polluted air and water. With these actions, the Trump EPA is trying to take us back to the days when rivers caught fire, toxic chemicals forced families to abandon their homes and acid rain ravaged our forests. This won’’ make America healthier or greater. It takes us backwards to a dirtier and sicker time of at least a generation ago.
“Much of the Trump administration’s efforts to gut the work of the federal government has run aground in the courts, because they violate the law,” said Adams. “Many of these actions will be challenged, as well, and we expect that federal judges will continue to block illegal executive actions. But EPA’s actions send a clear signal: Polluters will get a free ride and the rest of us will pay for it.”
Some energy industry executives applauded the EPA’s actions. National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) CEO Jim Matheson in a statement shared with POWER said his group supported the deregulation effort.
“Today’s EPA announcements are another critical step that puts our nation on a path towards a more reliable and resilient electric grid—and not a moment too soon,” said Matheson, whose group represents about 900 local electric cooperatives. “Electricity demand is skyrocketing, yet bad public policy decisions are forcing always-available generation resources to retire faster than they can be reliably replaced.”
Matheson continued: “EPA’s unlawful and unachievable Power Plant Rule exceeded the agency’s authority and jeopardized reliable and affordable energy across the nation. We deeply appreciate this administration’s commitment to American energy dominance and sound policies that protect our environment, without leaving American consumers in the dark.”
Administration Support for Deregulation
Zeldin’s announcement, as Wong noted, marks the start of a formal process to curb regulations on emissions and other pollution. Trump in the run-up to last year’s election said his administration would support deregulation, promising to “open dozens and dozens” of power plants. Trump has said the U.S. needs more power generation capacity to help meet expected demand for electricity from data centers and the manufacturing sector.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in an interview with Bloomberg News on Monday at the CERAWeek conference in Houston, Texas, said retired coal-fired power plants in the U.S. should be restarted as part of Trump’s national energy emergency declaration. “I think as part of the national energy emergency which President Trump has declared we’ve got to keep every plant open. And if there have been units at a coal plant that have been shut down, we need to bring those back on,” Burgum said. Burgum also is chairman of the Trump’s new National Energy Council, tasked with oversight of federal departments and agencies involved with permitting, regulating, producing, generating, distributing and transporting energy in the U.S.
The EPA during Trump’s first term as president made similar moves to undo rules either enacted or proposed during the Obama administration. That included replacing the Obama-era Clean Power Plan—which was never enacted—, which called on individual states to establish their own emissions standards for power plants.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
