The Biden administration is removing existing gas-fired power plants from its pending rule to reduce greenhouse gases from the energy sector and will address emissions from those facilities with broader supplemental regulations, the US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan in late February.
The agency made the change after receiving more than 1.3 million comments on the 2023 proposed rule, which was expected to be finalized this spring. It will cover all existing coal-fired plants, but only new gas-fired plants, he said.
Delaying the rule for existing natural gas plants will allow the EPA to make sure it’s helping environmental justice communities improve local air quality, said Melissa Miles, executive director of the Environmental Justice Alliance of New Jersey. Environmental groups Earthjustice and the Sierra Club also support the change.
But Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, (DR.I.), a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement that existing gas plants will now produce the majority of emissions from the power sector.
He called for the EPA to complete a “robust rule covering the existing gas fleet by the end of the year.”
