The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on September 14 that it is repealing limits on climate-warming pollution from coal and gas-fired power plants, the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country.
By gutting the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards, the EPA is eliminating most of the limits on power plants\u2019 carbon emissions. The move is one of the Trump administration\u2019s most significant attacks yet on the US government\u2019s ability to confront the climate crisis and protect communities devastated by pollution.
The 2024 standards required existing coal plants and new gas plants to capture 90 percent of carbon emissions or shut down by 2039, which would have reduced carbon pollution by an estimated 1.38 billion metric tons through 2047. The Biden-era rule was also projected to help reduce power plants\u2019 emissions of health-harming pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and fine particulate matter.
Human Rights Watch has documented how these pollutants from industrial operations can degrade air quality and harm the health of communities living nearby. Our research in countries like Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and T\u00fcrkiye has shown how coal-fired plants, in particular, can emit pollution that contributes to dangerous levels of air pollution. The Biden administration estimated that the 2024 Carbon Standards would prevent 1,200 deaths and 360,000 asthma attacks in the US in 2035 alone.
The EPA claimed its repeal of the 2024 standards would save businesses $370 million in regulatory costs but did not say what the costs to public health would be. In January, the agency said it would no longer factor in health costs when estimating the economic impact of pollution limits.
In its announcement rescinding the 2024 carbon standards, the EPA also proposed removing \u201call remaining greenhouse gas emissions requirements for power plants,\u201d arguing these emissions do not impact climate change. In 2025, the agency also revoked its 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health, a finding grounded in scientific evidence that had provided a legal foundation for federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
While the Trump administration mounts a full-throated denial of decades of scientific evidence, communities across the country\u2014and the world\u2014are already contending with the consequences of the climate crisis. The EPA should restore the 2024 standards and strengthen its regulation of the fossil fuel industry.
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