CHEYENNE, Wyo. – On Wednesday, June 11, Governor Mark Gordon announced his support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to repeal emission standards for new and existing fossil fuel-fired power plants.
The EPA’s Clean Power Plan – Version 2 would rescind 2015 legislation created under the Obama-Biden Administration, and a 2024 rule issued during the Biden-Harris Administration, which set stricter emission standards for power plants.
According to the EPA, the new plan is “proposing to repeal all greenhouse gas emissions standards for the power sector under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and to repeal amendments to the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) that directly result in coal-fired power plants having to shut down.”
“Today, I welcome the proposed repeal by the EPA of the so-called Clean Power Plan Version 2 that Administrator Lee Zeldin and I have discussed over the past several months, and I encourage him to proceed with it with all due urgency,” Governor Gordon said in the announcement.
Based on EPA’s estimates, loosening air emission standards would save the power sector $19 billion in regulatory costs over two decades beginning in 2026, or about $1.2 billion a year.
“The lopsided and misguided policies of the Biden administration have already wreaked enough havoc on our nation’s power supply and delayed our progress providing the beautiful clean coal President Donald Trump recognizes as essential to having a reliable, affordable and dispatchable energy supply for our nation,” Gordon stated.
The EPA’s Waste Emissions Charge (WEC), a rule that established a fee for the release of methane emissions, has not been in effect since May 19. The State of Wyoming, along with 22 other states, prevailed in overturning the WEC in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
