CHEYENNE – Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon announced his support for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to repeal the Biden-Harris EPA Regulations for power plants.
In a press release dated June 11, from Gordon’s strategic communications director, Janelle Collins, Gordon stated, “Today, I welcome the proposed repeal by EPA of the so-called Clean Power Plan Version 2 that Administrator Lee Zeldin and I have discussed over the past several months – and I encourage him to proceed with it with all due urgency.”
The governor added, “The lopsided and misguided policies of the Biden Administration have already wrecked enough havoc on our nation’s power supply and delayed our progress providing the beautiful clean coal President Donald Trump recognizes as essential to having a reliable, affordable and dispatchable energy supply for our nation.”
On June 11, the EPA released a press statement from EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s office.
“Affordable, reliable electricity is key to the American dream and a natural byproduct of national energy dominance,” Zeldin said. “According to many, the primary purpose of these Biden-Harris administration regulations was to destroy industries that didn’t align with their narrow-minded climate change zealotry. Together, these rules have been criticized as being designed to regulate coal, oil and gas out of existence.”
Lee, along with, U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), House Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY), U.S. Reps. Troy Balderson (R-OH), Carol Miller (R-WV), Dan Meuser (R-PA), Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) and Michael Rulli (R-OH) and Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren announced two proposals in taking “important steps toward ensuring affordable, dependable energy for American families and restore American energy dominance,” Lee wrote.
“EPA is proposing to repeal all ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions standards for the power sector under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and to repeal amendments to the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) that directly result in coal-fired power plants having to shut down,” Lee stated.
“These Biden-era regulations have imposed massive costs on coal-, oil-, and gas-fired power plants – raising the cost of living for American families, imperiling the reliability of our electric grid and limiting American energy prosperity,” Lee added.
Proposal to repeal Obama and Biden Administrations’ regulations of power plants
The EPA is proposing repealing the 205 emissions standards for new fossil fuel-fired power plants issued during the Obama-Biden Administration and the 2024 rule for new and existing fossil fuel-fired power plants issued under the Biden-Harris Administration.
“The first Clean Power Plan was struck down by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in 2022,” Lee explained. “Many have voiced concerns that the last administration’s replacement for that rule is similarly overreaching and an attempt to shut down affordable and reliable electricity generation in the United States – raising prices for American families and increasing the country’s reliance on foreign-made energy.”
The EPA provided details about the West Virginia v. EPA, SCOTUS case, which held, “the major questions doctrine barred EPA from misusing the Clean Air Act to manipulate Americans’ energy choices and shift the balance of the nation’s electrical fuel mix,” Lee added. “The Biden Administration issued its own rule in 2024, which many critics say is just another attempt to achieve the unlawful fuel-shifting goals of the Clean Power Plan.”
“Unlike other air pollutants with a regional or local impact – the targeted emissions are global in nature,” the EPA wrote.
As a result – any and all potential public health harms have not been accurately or adequately attributed to emissions from the U.S. power sectors across the nation. In light of these findings, the EPA is now proposing the CAA require the EPA to make finding targeted emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants significantly contribute to dangerous air pollution before regulating these emissions from this source category or others. Additionally, the EPA is also proposing to stipulate how greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution within the allocated legal limits of the statute.
Still, the EPA is proposing an alternative – to repeal the most “burdensome set of requirements issued for new and existing fossil fuel-fired steam generating units – specifically, the emission guidelines for existing power plants and carbon capture and sequestration/storage-based requirements for new combustion turbines and modified coal plants,” Lee further explained in the press release.
The EPA is currently accepting public comment on the efficiency-based requirements for new natural gas power plant requirements as part of this process. Those seeking to provide input are asked to visit www.epa.gov and under the public section, click public comments and select the rule they wish to comment about.
As of right now, these changes proposed by the EPA are estimated to save the power sector $19 billion in regulatory costs over the next two decades, starting in 2026, or about $1.2 billion a year, according to the EPA.
Proposal to repeal 2024 MATS amendments
In addition to the aforementioned proposed changes, the EPA is also seeking to repeal certain amendments issued on May 7, 2024, from the Biden-Harris Administration, to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Coal- and Oil-filled Electric Utility Steam Generating Units – a rule commonly known as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS. This proposal would revert back to 2012 standards which drove sharp reductions in harmful air toxic pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants, according to the EPA.
The hotly contested 2024 EPA ruling under the Biden-Administration, which was later ruled on by SCOTUS, in which the court sharply limited the administration’s authority to restrict carbon emissions, also reversed an earlier rule changed by his administration from 2021 relating to coal-firing facilities. The 2021 case, like the 2024 case, argued by lawyers for West Virginia said Congress did not give the environmental agencies nor Biden-Harris Administration the broad authority to reshape the system for producing electric power by switching from coal to natural gas, wind turbines or solar energy.
The 2024 case, which originated out of coal plants in Wyoming, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia, contested the second attempt by the Biden-Harris Administration to broadly regulate coal plants across America that were operating within legal limits of emissions was another attempt by the previous administration to force states into accepting more solar and wind-turbine contracts. Gordon had previously spoken about those rulings, stating they undercut the industries already thriving in Wyoming and the rule changes by the Biden Administration would harm Wyoming’s energy production industries.
“Coal plants in these states would have paid $1.2 billion over the next decade starting in 2028, or about $120 million a year for the power sector,” Lee added about the costly effects of the Biden-Harris EPA rule changes. “These costs are large and unnecessary given the success the industry has already achieved in reducing emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants.”
The current EPA proposal calls to relieve all facilities of the more stringent filterable particulate matter (PM) emission standard for coal-fired EGUs, the tighter mercury standard for lignite-fired EGUs and the requirement to use PM Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS).
This proposed action would further enhance efforts to comply with President Donald Trump’s Restoring American Energy Dominance executive order, also known as the Unleashing American Energy executive order signed on Jan. 20, on inauguration day.
“This proposed action would enhance efforts to restore American energy dominance by removing costly burdens on coal- and oil-fired power plants while still accomplishing the EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment,” Lee explained. “EPA estimates that this proposed repeal of the 2024 MATS amendments would save $1.2 billion in regulatory costs over a decade – or about $120 million a year.”
Lee said he will continue to seek ways to advance President Trump’s Day One executive orders and continue providing a pathway forward for coal- and oil-fired power plants nationwide.
For more information, readers are encouraged to visit the EPA website at www.epa.gov/newsreleases.
