White House pressed EPA to toughen power plant rule

Politics

The climate rule that the Biden administration unveiled last week was even stronger than what the Environmental Protection Agency had originally drafted, six people familiar with the regulation told POLITICO’s E&E News — after White House officials pressed for a proposal that would take effect sooner and encompass a larger selection of power plants.

The political maneuvering illustrates the stakes the Biden administration faces as it attempts to enact the country’s first successful federal standards for greenhouse gas emissions on the nation’s sprawling network of electricity-generating sources.

Previous efforts to reduce global warming emissions from power plants, which account for about a quarter of U.S. carbon pollution, have failed to survive court challenges and the swings of presidential elections.