EPA Representatives Push Back on Repeal Criticisms

The organization says lessening restrictions on the coal and oil industries will not lead to significantly greater levels of pollution.

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) – The Environmental Protection Agency is responding to critics who say that rolling back coal and oil regulations will damage the environment.

In 2024, former President Joe Biden issued an executive order, upping standards for the coal and oil industries that had been in place since 2012.

The Trump administration has now undone that move, taking regulations back to 2012 levels.

The EPA says that those 2012 standards are more than rigorous enough – and easing those regulations means coal and oil companies will have lower overhead costs, which should benefit the average consumer.

“With this repeal, we’re saying – all this money you were going to have to spend, that wasn’t really going to get anything a whole heck of a lot cleaner anyway, you’re not going to have to spend that money,” explained Cyrus Western, EPA Mountains and Plains Regional Administrator. “That’s one way that these utilities don’t have to pass these costs onto the consumer, which helps keep these utility bills low.”

Critics insist that deregulating coal plants specifically means more toxic chemicals such as mercury will be put into the air.