EPA eliminates federal greenhouse-gas limits for power plants
The rollback sits at the center of the U.S. fight over climate policy, electricity costs and how much regulatory power the EPA should have.
What happened
The EPA repealed federal rules limiting greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants, reversing a major climate-policy initiative and reducing federal requirements on coal- and gas-fired electricity generation.
Republican / administration case
The administration argues that the rules imposed high costs on power producers, threatened grid reliability and exceeded the EPA's appropriate regulatory role.
Democratic / critic case
Democrats and environmental groups argue that power plants are a major source of greenhouse gases and that eliminating limits increases climate and health risks while slowing the shift toward cleaner energy.
Libertarian / Cato case
The libertarian view is more divided than the partisan framing suggests. Cato generally favors less prescriptive federal regulation, but Cato legal scholar Jonathan Adler has argued that the administration's broader legal case for reversing the EPA's greenhouse-gas endangerment framework is unconvincing.
Where the disagreement really is
This is both a climate-policy argument and an administrative-law argument: how serious the external costs of emissions are, what policies efficiently address them, and what Congress actually authorized EPA to do.