The Trump administration is scrapping Biden-era emissions rules for power plants, saying the rollback will save the industry $310 billion.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin finalized the repeal Sept. 14 — then pushed for more.
He proposed cutting every remaining greenhouse gas standard, projecting an additional $370 billion in savings.
The EPA's press release stated the Biden administration's greenhouse gas regulations "have imposed unnecessary requirements and drained the power sector's resources, while producing virtually no benefit."
The EPA's move strikes most of the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards — stating the standards surpassed allotted authority by "requiring control technologies that are not adequately demonstrated, effectively forcing plants to retire rather than setting standards they could actually meet," the press release read.
Utah House Public Utilities and Energy Committee chair Colin W. Jack, R-St. George, said the former administration's regulations are "the greatest threat" to electricity in recent years.
"That rule was a direct threat to modern life," he said. "We had to overrule that and I'm just so relieved that it has finally happened."
The true debate lies not in what legally can or cannot be enforced — but what ought to be.
Utah politicians hold different views on the effects CO2 emissions actually produce on the environment and health.
Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Salt Lake, said he believes the change would cause another 1,000 deaths per year. He said emissions regulations bring "less emissions, less air quality issues, less cancer, less other disease, less asthma attacks.
Though the current repeal focuses only on CO2 emissions, Blouin says regulating solely CO2 doesn't mean other harmful chemicals won't be affected.
Jack — who is also an electrical engineer and former chief operating officer at Dixie Power — said the deregulations deal solely with CO2 emissions, not particulates, sulfur, mercury or nitrogen oxides, saying "none of those standards have changed."
"We're not talking about carbon emissions — we're talking about CO2, which is entirely different," he said. "CO2 is an odorless, colorless harmless gas, and in concentrations that have essentially no effect on the atmosphere, no effect on human well-being. So, it does sound scary, and it was deliberately designed to sound scary."
In the press release, the EPA stated current models show that greenhouse gases from power plants "have no material impact on global climate change.
"In fact, if all carbon dioxides were eliminated tomorrow, there would be no meaningful climate impact."
Hana Vizcarra, deputy managing attorney at Earthjustice, said his group believes power plants have significant impacts on communities across the nation, possibly leading to more wildfires, public health impacts and more severe weather.
Utah's two biggest coal plants — Hunter and Huntington — were supposed to shut down in 2036 and 2042. Last year, as regulations already began to loosen, Rocky Mountain Power announced the plants would continue running until at least 2045.
Now, with repealed regulations on greenhouse gases and more in the possible future, additional changes could be coming.
A third power plant in Delta had its coal units shut off last November. Supposedly, that plant is being replaced with a gas plant that can eventually run on hydrogen — unless emissions rules continue to dip, which could make the plant attractive to a potential buyer.
Jack said he has been working with the state to keep that as a "viable option."
"This rule will certainly give that new owner operator comfort that they'll be able to run that," he said.