USA to repeal carbon standards for its gas, coal power plants

Kathmandu: US President Donald Trump's administration is expected to remove limits on climate pollution from coal and gas power plants on Monday, according to Reuters, an international media.

The change would roll back rules introduced by former president Joe Biden's administration in 2024 which required coal and gas power plants to eliminate nearly all their carbon emissions.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin is expected to announce the change during a G20 energy ministers' meeting in Houston, Bloomberg News and the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter. This year the EPA overturned its 2009 Endangerment Finding, the scientific determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare.

Under the new rules, power plants would still be subject to some limits on mercury, arsenic and other contaminants, according to the Times. Coal is the fuel that emits the highest levels of greenhouse gases, contributing to climate change.

Trump frequently calls human-induced climate change "a hoax" and has worked since returning to office last year to remove a number of environmental regulations, many of which limited fossil fuel use.

The repeal is an important step in Trump's ⁠broader strategy on environmental regulations he views as unnecessary barriers to industrial development and expanded energy production.

Biden's carbon emission rules for power ⁠plants would have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 1 billion metric tons by 2047, a crucial part of ⁠his administration’s fight against climate change. The electricity sector is responsible for nearly a quarter of US greenhouse gas pollution.