US coal fired power stations must clean up or close down, says environment agency

Coal fired power plants in the US will have to clean up or close down under unprecedented new environmental rules announced by the Biden administration.

The move is a key element of the president’s commitment to decarbonise electricity by 2035 and all sectors by 2050. It includes new limits on air pollution from power stations, as well as tighter rules on the disposal of wastewater.

The power sector is the second largest producer of climate changing emissions in the US, after transport. Coal burning for electricity is also a major contributor to air pollution, having killed nearly half a million people in the US over the past 20 years.1

The plans, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),2 are the first time any countrywide legislation has been applied …