The Trump administration threw another lifeline to coal generation Monday.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will abandon Biden-era rules that force coal-burning power plants to capture most of their CO2 emissions or shut down.
The agency is also expected to argue it lacks the legal authority to regulate carbon dioxide.
In a statement, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency's action would promote reliability and affordability.
"Americans will see a decrease in electricity prices, but this is just the beginning," he said. "We are working to go even further so that American energy can be fully unleashed. Realizing the full potential of American energy means more jobs, lower prices, and a more prosperous America."
CO2 is a greenhouse gas that's making the planet hotter.
Under the Biden administration, coal plants would have been required, in the next several years, to capture 90% of their carbon emissions. The industry said the cost would have been prohibitive and the technology not feasible. The only choice was to retire the coal fleet, it said.
Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, have been making that their goal.
Elisa Owen, senior energy organizer for the Sierra Club in Kentucky, says the EPA move rewards more expensive forms of electricity.
"The current administration has made clear that it prefers burning fossil fuels," she said. "It's not good for anyone except the fossil fuel industry."
In its latest Short Term Energy Outlook, Trump's U.S. Department of Energy forecasts an 8% decline in nationwide coal generation this year, and another 6% drop next year.
Nationwide, solar surpassed coal in electricity generation for the first time in May. Solar is the fastest growing form of generation on the U.S. grid, and that's expected to continue.
Kentucky's Republican leaders have supported the Trump administration's rollback of regulations they say have hurt the state's coal industry.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Russell Coleman declined to comment Monday.
In February, Coleman appeared in Louisville with federal and state officials to announce the rollback of another Biden rule limiting mercury and other toxic materials in power plant emissions.
WEKU also asked the Kentucky Coal Association for comment on the rule change.
The Trump administration has enacted other policies favorable to coal in recent years. Those include declaring an energy emergency that forced older coal plants to remain on the grid rather than retire.
A federal district judge in the District of Columbia last week dealt an initial blow to that policy.
Echoing many critics of fossil fuels, Owen said the Trump policy on CO2 won't make coal plants more competitive.
"The economics are the economics," Owen said, "and those aren't changing regardless of how you choose to regulate what we call greenhouse gases, those that make the effect of warming, global warming, worse."
According to the Sierra Club, three of the power plants that emit the most carbon dioxide nationwide are in the region.
They include the Tennessee Valley Authority's Cumberland plant in West Tennessee, Kentucky Utilities' Ghent plant in Northern Kentucky and Mon Power's Harrison plant in West Virginia.
The Ghent and Harrison plants emitted more than 10 million tons of CO2 in 2025, while the Cumberland plant emitted more than 9 million.
Other big emitters include East Kentucky Power's Spurlock plant and Appalachian Power's Amos plant, in Kentucky and West Virginia, respectively. Both emitted more than 8 million tons of CO2 in 2025.
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