Trump’s new “Clean Power Plan” might be a boon to coal-fired power plants

Enlarge / Smokestacks at Pacificorp’s 1,000MW coal-fired power plant on October 9, 2017 outside Huntington, Utah. (credit: George Frey/Getty Images)

On Tuesday, the Trump administration proposed a replacement rule for former president Obama's Clean Power Plan, and its details favor coal power plant owners.

On Monday night, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler signed a proposed rule, called the "Affordable Clean Energy Rule," which would direct states to inventory their power plants and come up with a plan to regulate the greenhouse gas emissions of individual plants. By contrast, the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan established targets for emissions across each state's energy sector, a move that would have incentivized the industry to leave behind the highest-carbon-emitting power sources, like coal.

The Trump administration has argued that the EPA can't use the Clean Air Act to set emissions levels for the energy industry in general but instead could regulate emissions at each individual source of emissions. The argument has not yet been tested in court, although opposition to the rule proposed today may give the administration a chance to try it out.