On June 11, 2025, the EPA announced two proposals for deregulatory actions for power plants. The proposals are to repeal all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for the power sector under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and amendments to the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) that directly result in the shutdown of coal-fired power plants.
“Unlike other air pollutants with a regional or local impact, the targeted emissions are global in nature,” states an Agency news release. “As a result, any potential public health harms have not been accurately attributed to emissions from the U.S. power sector. In light of this, EPA is proposing that the CAA requires the agency to make a finding that the targeted emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants significantly contribute to dangerous air pollution before regulating these emissions from this source category. In addition, EPA is proposing that [GHG] emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution within the meaning of the statute.”
Many experts, analysts, and environmentalists disagree.
According to ABC News, “Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator and White House national climate advisor during the Biden administration, wrote, ‘The key rationale (current EPA Administrator Lee) Zeldin is using to justify the dismantling of our nation’s protections from power plant pollution is absolutely illogical and indefensible.’
“She added, ‘It’s a purely political play that goes against decades of science and policy review. By giving a green light to more pollution, his legacy will forever be someone who does the bidding of the fossil fuel industry at the expense of our health.’”
Many sources also dispute the notion that fossil fuel plants “do not contribute significantly” to dangerous air pollution.
According to The Guardian, “a new analysis shows that the emissions from American fossil-fuel plants are prominent on a global scale, having contributed 5% of all planet-heating pollution since 1990. If it were a country, the U.S. power sector would be the sixth largest emitter in the world, eclipsing the annual emissions from all sources in Japan, Brazil, the UK and Canada, among other nations.”
Section 111 of the CAA requires the EPA administrator to determine if a category of pollution sources contributes significantly to dangerous air pollution. Determining that power plants don’t provides the Agency with an easier path to deregulation than attempting to overturn the endangerment finding underpinning CAA regulations.
This type of determination is sure to spark significant legal challenges. However, if prevalent, this would allow the Agency to stop regulating most other types of stationary emissions sources because “[f]ossil fuel-derived electricity is responsible for the second largest source of emissions in the US, behind transportation,” The Guardian explains.
The Agency will have to find another path to deregulate the transportation industry, as its statutory authority falls under a different section of the CAA.
Virtually every other source of stationary emissions emits less than the power sector.
“Experts have questioned whether pollution needs to be deemed ‘significant’ in order to be subjected to the [CAA], which has been used to regulate even proportionally small levels of environmental toxins,” The Guardian adds.
“There is absolutely no legal basis for them to propose a pollutant like CO2 has to meet some sort of significance, they are making this up, this is make-believe law,” said Joseph Goffman, who led theEPA’s office of air and radiation during Biden’s term. “This is a sort of cheat code to try to neutralize any tool they fear might be used to reduce [GHGs].”