EPA to Regulate Emissions, Pollution Coming from Power Plants for First Time

To bring the United States closer to its climate goals, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new regulations to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, which are currently unregulated. 

The power sector produced 25 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. According to the EPA, the new rule (expected to go into effect in 2030) will apply to some, but not all, existing natural gas power plants, any new natural gas plants, and facilities that burn coal or oil.   

The federal rule is another push toward making the country's power sector completely carbon-free, Brian Murray, interim director of the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, told ABC News.

“I think this is going to lead to, over the next two decades, fossil units that are still around … are going to have adopted some technology to keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere," Murray said.