'Green blitz': As election nears, Biden pushes slew of rules on environment, other priorities
As he tries to secure his legacy, President Joe Biden has unleashed a flurry of election-year rules on the environment
WASHINGTON (AP) — As he tries to secure his legacy, President Joe Biden has unleashed a flurry of election-year rules on the environment and other topics, including a landmark regulation that would force coal-fired power plants to capture smokestack emissions or shut down.
The limits on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fueled electric stations are the Democratic president's most ambitious effort yet to roll back planet-warming pollution from the power sector, the nation’s second-largest contributor to climate change.
The power plant rule is among more than 60 regulations Biden and his administration finalized last month to meet his policy goals, including a promise to cut carbon emissions that are driving climate change roughly in half by 2030. The regulations, led by the Environmental Protection Agency but involving a host of other federal agencies, are being issued in quick succession as the Biden administration rushes to meet a looming but uncertain deadline to ensure they are not overturned by a new Congress — or a new president.
"The Biden administration is in green blitz mode,″ said Lena Moffitt, executive director of the activist group Evergreen Action.
