The Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency has moved to eliminate most federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, overturning a Biden-era rule and proposing to scrap remaining climate requirements for the sector altogether. The EPA argues that the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards exceeded its authority under the Clean Air Act and that emissions from power plants, the second-largest source of US greenhouse gases, "have no material impact on climate change." The move comes despite the hottest summer on record and a UN report warning of escalating climate risks, and legal experts say it undermines the scientific and legal basis for regulating climate pollution altogether.

The rollback follows a February decision to scrap the "endangerment finding" underpinning vehicle emissions rules, and an attempt to revoke California's authority to set its own stricter vehicle standards, which a federal judge has temporarily blocked. Climate lawyers, including Maggie Coulter of the Center for Biological Diversity, expect the administration to argue that greenhouse gases pose no danger to health or welfare, a position she says contradicts well-established science and is likely to be challenged in court. Critics, including academics tracking fossil fuel industry tactics, say the administration is echoing decades-old strategies used by oil companies to deny or downplay climate science.