Congresswoman Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) called out the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) recent rollback of power plant emission limits, emphasizing the need for reliable energy sources over power plants.
“Fossil-fueled power plants are expensive, dirty, and make our communities sicker,” Rep. Castor wrote on X. “The EPA’s rollback of life-saving pollution limits is a dangerous, corrupt decision that gives handouts to Big Oil and Gas and does nothing to lower your costs.”
“A healthy and affordable future for our communities depends on holding polluters accountable and building cheaper, cleaner, more reliable energy—not prolonging the lives of outdated power plants,” she added.
EPA Rolls Back Biden- and Obama-Era Policies
Recently, the EPA announced the repeal of two key Biden- and Obama-era carbon emission policies.
The EPA will roll back Biden-era rules that cracked down on pollution from coal-fueled and newly built natural-gas-fueled plants.
It also announced that it would rescind the Obama-era “endangerment findings,” a scientific finding that provided the legal basis for the EPA’s climate rules under the Clean Air Act.
According to the EPA, rolling back the Biden-era policy will save the industry more than $300 billion.
Zeldin Affirms EPA Can't Regulate Emissions Based on Climate Change
The EPA’s announcement also coincided with a Group of 20 (G20) ministerial meeting on “energy abundance” in Houston.
During the G20 meeting, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin affirmed that the Clean Air Act does not give the EPA regulatory powers.
“Today’s proposal states the Clean Air Act does not give us the authority to regulate power-plant emissions based on climate change,” Zeldin said. “At EPA, we follow a very simple principle. If Congress didn’t authorize it, EPA shouldn’t be doing it.”
The EPA’s recent rescission is among the several other rules repealed as part of the agency’s effort to cut bureaucratic red tape put in place by previous administrations and “unleash American energy”
