Dive Brief:
- President-elect Donald Trump on Monday selected former Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican from New York, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency amid expectations the agency will roll back regulations affecting fossil fuel-fired power plants.
- Zeldin, a House member from 2015 to 2023, will ensure “fair and swift” deregulatory decisions that will boost American business while maintaining the highest environmental standards, Trump said in a statement.
- “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI,” Zeldin said in a statement. “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.”
Dive Insight:
The Trump administration will likely roll back EPA regulations affecting fossil-fuel power plants, including a rule that sets limits for carbon emissions from power plants, according to Michelle Bloodworth, president and CEO of America’s Power, a trade group for owners of coal-fired power plants.
“Given these elections, we do expect to see a lot more delayed coal plant retirements because of data center growth,” Bloodworth said on Sunday at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ annual meeting in Anaheim, California.
According to Bloodworth, there are six EPA rules that will force the early retirement of most U.S. coal-fired power plants, which total about 180,000 MW, while also impeding new gas-fired generation. They are the carbon rule, the ozone transport rule, mercury and air toxics standards, effluent limitation guidelines, the coal ash rule and the regional haze rule.
The carbon, ozone transport, effluent limits and MATS rules are being challenged in court, Bloodworth said during a panel discussion on power plant retirements in an era of rising electric demand.
Bloodworth expects the Trump administration will ask the courts to stay the pending lawsuits and to remand the rules to the EPA. Based on precedent, it is highly likely the courts would grant those requests, she said.
After the rules are sent back to the EPA, the agency can start new rulemaking processes to either repeal the rules or revise them so they don’t affect grid reliability or affordability or so they are “more reasonable and more flexible,” Bloodworth said. That process could take more than two years, she said.
The Trump administration would also likely act on the coal ash and regional haze rule, according to Bloodworth.
In response to the Zeldin pick, the Sierra Club said he was unqualified. He received a League of Conservation Voters lifetime score of 14% and voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, the environmental group said.
During his Senate conformation hearing, Zeldin should commit to making sure the United States remains a leader in the clean energy transition and the “good-paying jobs it creates” — or risk falling behind other nations, the Environmental Defense Fund said in a statement.
“Given the record of President-elect Trump’s EPA during his first administration, and his allies’ proposals to undo climate progress and health protections, we will be watching Mr. Zeldin’s confirmation process closely,” Amanda Leland, EDF executive director, said.
Meanwhile, America’s Power is urging grid operators and state utility regulators to consider measures to avoid capacity shortfalls and to maintain grid reliability. They are:
- Dispatchable generation should not retire until replacement capacity with at least the same accredited capacity and reliability attributes is in operation;
- Transmission that is needed for the replacement capacity should be in-service before the older generation retires; and
- Grid operators should identify and value all attributes that are needed to maintain grid reliability.
