Several analyses have shown, however, that coal is being displaced in the US largely by economic forces, such as cheaper gas, rather than environmental regulation. This rhetoric was echoed by the National Mining Association, which claimed that the EPA’s “disregard for the repercussions of premature coal plant retirements” posed serious risks. “This administration is determined to advance its radical climate agenda and has made it clear they are hellbent on doing everything in their power to regulate coal- and gas-fueled power plants out of existence,” said Manchin, who vowed, as chairman of the Senate’s energy and natural resources committee, to block all EPA nominees in protest over the rule. The new climate rule already has a committed congressional foe in the form of Senator Joe Manchin, the centrist Democrat who personally has coal interests in his native West Virginia. Meanwhile, a future Republican president, perhaps even Donald Trump, could undo the pollution regulations. “We feel really good that we are within those bounds,” Regan said. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.ĮPA officials have said, however, they are confident the rule sits within the court’s view of the agency’s authority. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. The supreme court previously stymied a previous, albeit more sweeping, attempt to regulate power plants by Barack Obama’s administration. The rightwing-dominated supreme court, which limited the scope of the EPA’s climate actions in a ruling last summer, may well intervene again after the almost inevitable lawsuits that coal-rich Republican states will probably launch. The agency’s push to tackle the climate crisis still faces significant hurdles. Vehicles and power plants are the two most polluting sectors in the US and the sticks that the EPA can wield here are essential.” Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen, an environmental campaign group, said younger voters in particular want the Biden administration “to make polluters clean up their act in fact they want him to go further, faster. This is despite a series of controversial recent decisions by the Biden administration that risk undermining its own climate agenda, such as the approval of the Willow oil project in Alaska and the buildout of a growing export industry for liquified natural gas. In combination, these moves “have the potential to substantially advance clean power generation in the US”, according to Brian Murray, an environmental policy expert at Duke University. The climate rule caps off a month of frenzied activity by the EPA, which has issued a flurry of new regulations aimed at curbing air toxins from industrial facilities and restricting planet-heating gases from new cars and trucks. ![]() ![]() “This is a day for the history books, as the United States locks into the path toward a prosperous, clean and equitable future.,” Lashof said. “The EPA’s proposed rule sends an unequivocal signal to American power plant operators: the era of unlimited carbon pollution is over,” said Dan Lashof, US director of the World Resources Institute, who added that the regulation would result in more than an 80% reduction in carbon pollution from power plants by 2040 compared to 2005 levels. ![]() Researchers have warned that without further regulation of major pollution sources, the US – the world’s largest historical emitter of planet-heating gases – will miss its climate targets and risk unleashing ever worsening heatwaves, droughts, flooding and societal upheaval at home and overseas. The new rule has been welcomed by environmental groups as a potentially pivotal moment that should, in combination with support for clean energy in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, drive down emissions in the power sector, which contributes about a quarter of the US’s overall greenhouse gas pollution. “The public and environmental benefits of this rule will be tremendous.” “Not only will the proposal improve air quality nationwide, it will bring substantial health improvements to communities across this country, especially communities that have unjustly borne the burden of pollution,” Regan said. The new rule – if it survives a gamut of expected legal challenges – will help “safeguard the planet for future generations”, according to Michael Regan, the EPA administrator. In all, the EPA forecasts that the standards would prevent up to 617m tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted from coal and gas plants over the next two decades, which is equivalent to the yearly emissions of around half of all the cars in the US, or nearly double what the entire UK emits in a year.
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