The administration of President Donald Trump has scrapped federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday in Houston, Texas. The move reverses rules adopted in 2024 under President Joe Biden and also aims to block similar restrictions from being introduced in the future.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin presented the decision as a major milestone in the government's energy policy. He said the agency was cutting bureaucratic red tape to carry out the broadest deregulation ever undertaken in the electricity sector. He added that under the Trump administration, the EPA would not bend the law to appease what he called climate alarmism or radicalism, and accused journalists of trying to frighten the public.
Backing coal and gas production
The administration justified the change as necessary to support electricity production it considers reliable and affordable. Zeldin said that for more than 15 years, the Obama and Biden administrations had waged a war on coal in an effort to destroy a dependable and affordable energy source. He said the goal now is to protect the American energy sector and keep electricity costs down for households.
The energy sector accounts for nearly a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. In 2025, natural gas supplied 41% of the country's total electricity production and coal accounted for 17%, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Demand has been rising alongside the growth of artificial intelligence and data centres, which consume large amounts of electricity.
Environmental groups push back
The EPA said the rollback applies only to greenhouse gases and that other pollutants will continue to be regulated. The agency also argued that the emissions reduction targets set under Biden were impossible to meet and that it lacks the legal authority to impose such limits on the power sector.
Environmental organisations strongly rejected the decision. Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists accused authorities of boosting the profits of the fossil fuel industry at the expense of public health and wellbeing. She said the EPA has completely abandoned its mission and is even celebrating that fact.
Legal challenges expected
Several lawsuits have already been announced. Meredith Hankins, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said she saw contradictions in the administration's reasoning and said she looked forward to meeting officials in court. In 2025, more than 200 healthcare workers and experts had already voiced what they called serious concern over the plan, describing it at the time as a blatant gift to polluters.
Part of a wider rollback
The latest deregulation is part of a series of decisions taken since Trump returned to the White House. The United States has again withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, and several environmental standards have been eliminated. In early 2026, the administration also repealed the underlying finding that serves as the legal basis for federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
