US court rejects EPA bid to ease regulations for coal-fired power plants

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

June 26, 2026 10:59 AM EDT Updated 6 hours ago


WASHINGTON, June 26 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday rejected the Environmental Protection Agency's bid to ​withdraw Biden-era limits on soot pollution from coal-fired power plants and ‌factories, in a setback for the Trump administration's deregulatory efforts.

The EPA under President Donald Trump last year asked the appeals court to invalidate the 2024 rule, arguing ​the agency had acted unreasonably by failing to consider costs while ​setting the standard. The court rejected the petition, leaving the annual ⁠limit of 9 micrograms per cubic meter of fine particulate matter, known ​as PM 2.5, in place.

"After initially defending the new rule, the EPA ​now moves to vacate the rule on the grounds that it exceeded its statutory authority and acted unreasonably by failing to consider costs. Because these arguments lack merit, we ​deny the petitions for review and the motion for vacatur," the ​ruling said.

The EPA under Biden had said the tighter limits would avoid more than 800,000 ‌cases ⁠of asthma symptoms, 2,000 hospital visits and 4,500 premature deaths. But the Trump EPA has said that the 2024 rule costs "hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars to American citizens if allowed to be implemented" and ​was not based on ​a full ⁠review of available science. It said on Friday it was reviewing the decision.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/us-court-rejects-epa-bid-ease-regulations-coal-fired-power-plants-2026-06-26/

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REFERENCE - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143230867

[sakabatou]

1. Wait, the EPA wants this...? That doesn't make sense.

Then again, this is Lardass’ EPA, so....

[BumRushDaShow]

2. The Biden EPA did the regs. The 45 EPA suddenly doesn't want tgem.

That's why the appeals court is having a fit with the 45ers.

[modrepub]

3. Kind of Misleading Headline

Trump tried to have the 2024 PM-2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standard withdrawn after it had already gone through the entire rule passage process before Trump won the election and was sworn in. It's a major loss and may impact currently operating coal plants but not directly. Other National Ambient Air Quality Standards are in place to make running coal plants in an uncontrolled manner pretty much impossible. Truth be told, most large coal-fired power plants are being doomed through their waste-water discharge limits not necessarily air quality standards. And electricity generated from coal-fired power plants is usually more expensive than natural gas, wind and solar electricity generation so here is another instance of the Trump administration imposing a higher costing service on the general public.

Another example of amateur legal arguments from the Trump administration. Industry has challenged EPA imposed air quality standards multiple times trying to argue the cost of enacting the controls outweighs the benefits and lost every single time.

[Bayard]

4. Money is always the prime factor in this admin.

Cost in human lives is irrelevant.