Energy

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin announced Wednesday that the agency would aim to undo former President Joe Biden’s regulations limiting carbon and toxic emissions from fossil fuel power plants, a major deregulatory undertaking that would undo one of the most significant policies addressing climate change.

“Both proposed rules, if finalized, would deliver savings to American families on electricity bills, and it will ensure that they have the electricity that they need today,” Zeldin said at a press conference on Wednesday. “EPA is taking an important step, reclaiming sanity and sound policy, illustrating that we can both protect the environment and grow the economy.” 

The rules in question were finalized last April by the Biden administration. They set a series of standards for fossil fuel power plants, requiring new and existing plants to reduce carbon pollution by installing carbon capture, sequestration, and storage technology to limit the release of other toxic substances, such as mercury.

Zeldin argued that the Biden standards sought to regulate coal, oil, and gas out of existence.