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The Environmental Protection Agency announced its plans today to kill any remaining standards on how much greenhouse gas pollution power plants are allowed to emit in the US. The move will only make electricity dirtier as AI, electric vehicles, and a revival of domestic manufacturing drive up power demand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The EPA\u2019s proposal today is a major escalation of President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to promote fossil fuels while making it easier to build out energy-hungry data centers. Environmental and consumer advocates, meanwhile, are fighting back \u2014 arguing that Trump\u2019s deregulation spree comes with higher costs for the environment, public health, and Americans\u2019 pocketbooks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A major escalation of President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to promote fossil fuels while making it easier to build out energy-hungry data centers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cFailure to limit climate pollution means more children ending up in the emergency room with asthma attacks and heatstroke, more families struggling to rebuild homes after harrowing storms,\u201d Moms Clean Air Force director and cofounder Dominique Browning said in an emailed statement. \u201cIt means higher health care bills, higher insurance costs, and more economic struggle at a time when Americans cannot afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The agency today is finalizing its repeal of Biden-era greenhouse gas requirements for power plants, as well as proposing the elimination of any remaining limits to that climate pollution for the power sector. The EPA claims the finalized rule would save $310 billion while the additional proposed actions would shave off $370 million \u201cin direct compliance costs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The EPA\u2019s proposed changes will be open for public comment for 45 days, and are likely to face a raft of legal challenges. \u201cThe Sierra Club will fight back against this reckless and dangerous proposal with everything we have in the courts, in Congress, and in communities across the country,\u201d Sierra Club chief program officer Holly Bender said in an emailed press statement. \u201cWhile wildfires rage, floods devastate communities, and families struggle to afford skyrocketing electricity bills and insurance premiums, the Trump administration is handing the fossil fuel industry a license to keep polluting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n