U.S. EPA Repeals Federal Carbon Limits for U.S. Power Plants 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to repeal the federal greenhouse gas standard for coal and natural gas power plants, completing a rollback Administrator Lee Zeldin said would stop regulators from using the Clean Air Act (CAA) to regulate coal, oil and gas “out of existence.”

The EPA announced the repeal on the first day of the Global G20 Forum on Regulatory Efficiency, part of the three-day G20 Energy Abundance Ministerial taking place in Houston from September 14–16, 2026, according to the AP. Zeldin, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright are all in attendance, along with their G20 counterparts.

The venue underscored the Trump administration's argument that environmental permitting and emissions requirements have become obstacles to energy security, manufacturing growth, and the construction of power sources for data centers and artificial intelligence facilities.

The EPA also announced a separate proposal intended to make comparable regulation more difficult for future administrations. The proposal would establish that greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel power plants do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution - the threshold EPA says must be crossed before it may regulate a source category under Section 111.

That interpretation is likely to become the central question in litigation over the rollback. The EPA has relied on the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in West Virginia v. EPA, which restricted the agency's ability to use Section 111 to reshape the national electricity mix.

The repeal will take effect after publication in the Federal Register. The separate significance proposal will undergo public comment before the EPA finalizes it.

Rolling Back Obama and Biden Emissions Limits

The final rule eliminates power sector standards issued under CAA Section 111 during the Obama and Biden administrations. It removes 2015 performance standards for new fossil fuel power plants, as well as the Biden administration's 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards for existing coal plants, modified coal plants, and new natural gas turbines.

The 2024 standards divided coal plants according to how long their owners intended to operate them. Existing units planning to run beyond January 1, 2039, would have been required to meet an emissions limit based on capturing 90% of their carbon dioxide by January 1, 2032.

Plants scheduled to close by 2039 faced a January 1, 2030, deadline for achieving an emission rate limit based on cofiring 40% natural gas. New baseload gas turbines also faced a January 1, 2032, standard based on 90% carbon capture. The repeal removes those requirements and the state planning process for existing units.

The Biden EPA had projected that its rule would prevent 1.38 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions through 2047 and produce as much as $370 billion in net climate and public health benefits. The Trump EPA disputes the legal and economic foundations of that analysis, arguing that U.S. power plant emissions are a small and declining portion of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.