WV officials celebrate while advocates worry as EPA proposes loosening carbon emission standards

by Caity Coyne, West Virginia Watch
June 13, 2025

West Virginia elected officials this week celebrated proposals from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to roll back regulations on emissions from power plants that advocates worry will threaten public health as well as the environment.

The standards the EPA is looking to ease require existing coal-fired and new natural gas power plants to cut 90% of carbon emissions and tightens emission standards for toxic metals like mercury from coal-fired power plants by 70%.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin officially announced the proposed regulatory changes at a news conference Wednesday, where he was joined by Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va, among other congressional representatives from across the country.

Zeldin said the regulations are responsible for increased power costs. Loosening them, he believes, could lower power bills for households across the nation.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, told West Virginia Public Broadcasting Wednesday that she was “thrilled” about the proposed changes as she has “long opposed” the standards because of potentially “devastating economic impacts” and “energy reliability concerns.”

Gov. Patrick Morrisey, in a news release Wednesday, called the EPA’s proposal a “major victory” for West Virginia. 

“These rules were a direct assault on our coal communities, designed to force a rapid transition away from fossil fuels by imposing unworkable emissions standards on existing power plants,” Morrisey said. “This action by Administrator Zeldin restores constitutional order and delivers long-overdue relief to states like West Virginia that have been unfairly targeted for years.”

As the state’s attorney general, Morrisey successfully argued to the Supreme Court of the United States in a 2022 decision that the EPA lacks the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions by changing standards for existing plants without action by Congress.

“We kept fighting and ultimately won at the highest court in West Virginia v. EPA, a decisive ruling that reaffirmed what we had argued all along: major policy decisions like reshaping our energy grid must come from Congress, not from unelected federal bureaucrats,” Morrisey said Wednesday.

The regulations being targeted by the EPA now were enacted through separate acts under President Barack Obama in 2015 and President Joe Biden in 2024. Zeldin on Wednesday emphasized that, at this point, the changes are only proposed. The public will have 45 days to comment on the changes.

Through the rollbacks, the EPA is questioning whether emissions from fossil-fuel fired power plants actually “significantly contribute to dangerous air pollution.” Since the pollutants are “global in nature,” according to the agency, “any potential public health harms have not been accurately attributed to emissions from the U.S. power sector.”

Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — as well as other greenhouse gases — are known to be the leading cause of climate change worldwide as they trap heat in the atmosphere which warms the planet. They are also known to increase air pollution and smog, contributing to asthma and other respiratory conditions for people who live in places with high concentrations of them in the air.

“Corporate polluters with access to the Trump administration make more money when they don’t have to worry about protecting our communities’ health, but the rest of us in Appalachia and across the country will feel the negative impacts,” said Chelsea Barnes, the director of government affairs at Appalachian Voices, a regional environmental advocacy group. “This action by the EPA, paired with the broad cancellation of billions of dollars in federal grants meant to help people clean up pollution and congressional and agency efforts to skip and eliminate environmental review for new polluting projects, will undoubtedly make Americans less healthy and less safe.”

According to the Sierra Club, coal plants in Kentucky, West Virginia and Southeastern Ohio could see a 72% increase in carbon emissions if the current standards are repealed.

West Virginia is home to several of the nation’s highest greenhouse gas emitters. In 2023, the state was the 12th highest emitter of greenhouse gases in the country, per data from the EPA. Power plants, according to the EPA data, were the largest emitter in the state, accounting for 72.25% of all emissions from 13 different facilities. 

The state’s Harrison Power Station — which is operated by Mon Power, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. — was the ninth highest emitter of greenhouse gases nationally in 2023, releasing about 11.18 million metric tons of greenhouse gases into the environment.

Carbon dioxide was by far the highest emitted greenhouse gas, with 52.3 million metric tons — about 81% of all emissions — coming from 113 facilities in West Virginia. According to the data, there were also 11.4 million metric tons of methane released by West Virginia facilities and 233,038 metric tons of nitrous oxide released in 2023.

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West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.