Client Alert
On September 14, 2026, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued a final rule that repealed substantially all of the carbon pollution standards set in 2024 with respect to fossil fuel-fired power plants. The EPA supplemented its repeal with a proposal to rescind the remaining standards by repealing its Greenhouse Gas Standards for Fossil Fuel-Fired Power Plants and Regulations for Power Plant Greenhouse Gas Emissions under Clean Air Act Section 111.
Background and Rescission
The EPA forecasted this move when, in February 2026, it rescinded its Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and subsequent federal greenhouse gas emission standards for cars and trucks. The EPA asserts that its actions will ensure “affordable and reliable energy supplies and drive down costs of transportation, heating, utilities, farming, and manufacturing while boosting our national security.” The EPA estimates that the final rule will save the power sector up to $310 billion in compliance costs.
In 2024, the Biden Administration finalized a rule that set standards under the Clean Air Act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new gas plants and existing coal-fired power plants. Among other things, the standards required the use of carbon capture and sequestration technology on coal-fired power plants operating past 2039 and on modified or reconstructed units. The 2024 carbon pollution standards represented a second attempt to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants. The Obama Administration issued the Clean Power Plan in 2015, which aimed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 870 million tons by 2030. The Clean Power Plan was subsequently struck down by the Supreme Court.
Environmental and public health groups have already filed lawsuits against the EPA challenging its repeal of the 2024 carbon pollution standards. Additional lawsuits are expected to follow.
