Facing intense opposition from major industries and some Democrats, the Biden administration on Thursday said it would delay the most contentious element of its plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
The Environmental Protection Agency will exempt existing gas-fired plants, at least for now, from a new regulation that would require power plants in the United States to capture their carbon dioxide emissions before 2040.
The delay comes as the administration, in a concession to automakers and labor unions, is also expected to relax elements of another major rule to limit carbon pollution from automobiles. That was in response to pressure from automakers as well as labor unions, an important part of President Biden’s Democratic constituency as he seeks re-election in November.
The power plant rule initially called for steep emissions cuts from plants that burn coal or gas, which together produce the bulk of electricity in the United States. To comply, plants would have to capture their greenhouse gas emissions using technologies that are currently very expensive and not widely in use.
Now the E.P.A. says the regulation, which is expected to be finalized this spring, will apply only to existing coal-burning plants and gas-fired plants that are built in the future.
The agency plans to write a separate regulation to address climate pollution and other emissions from gas-fired plants currently in operation, a delay certain to stretch past the November election.
“This stronger, more durable approach will achieve greater emissions reductions than the current proposal,” Michael Regan, the E.P.A. administrator, said in a statement.
The changes comes as Mr. Biden faces intense headwinds as he runs for re-election while trying to confront climate change. He is aiming to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and gasoline powered vehicles, which are two of the largest sources of greenhouse gasses, while retaining crucial electoral support in major manufacturing states.
Power plants generate about a quarter of the planet-warming pollution produced by the United States. Regulating electric utilities is a major part of Mr. Biden’s climate agenda, which calls for eliminating emissions from the power sector by 2035.
When the E.PA. first proposed new limits on pollution from power plants, the resistance was immediate.
Electric utility groups argued that the rules for existing gas plants would be particularly hard to meet; the country’s biggest manufacturing lobby warned it could have “devastating consequences”; and a small but significant number of swing state Democrats said they also feared the requirements would result in electric rate increases.
“Depending on implementation, municipal electric utilities serving small, rural communities in my district may have no choice but to pass along the costs of compliance to their ratepayers,” said Representative Marcy Kaptur, Democrat of Ohio.
Ms. Kaptur was among a group of House and Senate Democrats who wrote to the E.P.A. in January to express concern about the proposed regulation. “We share the administration’s goal of responsibly reducing carbon emissions,” they wrote. But, they added “we cannot ask our constituents to bear the cost of that risk in the form of significantly higher utility bills and unreliable electricity.”
Senator Jon Tester, one of the most vulnerable Democrats facing re-election in November, said he supported the president’s climate agenda but wanted a methodical transition to cleaner energy. “I’m all about climate change, and we have to figure out ways to that,” Mr. Tester said on Wednesday. “In the meantime, we can’t shut off the spigot.”
Under the new plan disclosed on Thursday, the E.P.A. said it intended to finalize its regulation to require existing coal plants to install technology that will capture 90 percent of their carbon emissions by 2035. Alternatively, coal plants could convert their operations so that they are burning mostly hydrogen by 2038. Plants that cannot meet the new standards would be forced to retire.
The E.P.A. did not say when it intended to issue a separate rule for gas plants. Mr. Regan said the agency was writing a regulation that will also address other harmful pollutants emitted from gas plants like formaldehyde and nitrous oxide.
Delaying the final regulation past this spring runs the risk of it being overturned by the next Congress. The 1996 Congressional Review Act permits lawmakers to undo regulations with a simple majority within the first 60 days of the finalization of a new rule. Republicans have already pledged to repeal rules written by the Biden administration rules if they win control of the White House and Congress in November.
A group of environmental justice leaders led by Robert Bullard, a professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University, issued a letter in support of the delay because they were glad to learn it meant the agency would also consider blocking nitrous oxide and other pollutants.
“Many of our communities experience the immediate impacts of living near the existing infrastructure of coal plants, gas plants, pipelines, and extraction and refining facilities,” Dr. Bullard and others wrote.
Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, an environmental group, said climate activists understood the need for the delay. The original rule would have left smaller gas plants, known as peaker plants, unregulated, she said.
One analysis done by Evergreen, another environmental advocacy group, said that only 5.2 percent of gas-fired turbines, representing 22 percent of the nation’s gas power capacity, would be covered by the rule.
“There’s no good way to regulate fossil gas plants without regulating all of them, and taking a comprehensive approach that gets at their toxics pollution as well as their climate pollution,” Ms. Dillen said.
Coral Davenport contributed reporting.