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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced a wave of regulatory rollbacks on Wednesday that included a repeal of emissions limits on power plants, reduced protections for waterways and a rollback of tailpipe pollution curbs in an effort to deliver on President Donald Trump's energy dominance agenda.
The Environmental Protection Agency is moving to unwind 31 Biden-era regulations intended to boost industries ranging from agriculture to electric utilities, oil and petrochemicals and automobiles to align with Trump's vows to slash red tape, but they are also destined to weaken core environmental U.S. air and water protections.
"Today is the most consequential day of deregulation in American history," EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a video message posted on X, adding that he is carrying out Trump's day-one executive orders aimed at eliminating red tape for industry.
Zeldin announced earlier on Wednesday that he will reduce the number of waterways that would face regulation under the Clean Water Act in a move urged by the agriculture and petrochemical industries.
He announced later that the agency would reconsider the Biden-era clean power plant rule that seeks to reduce carbon emissions from power plants and roll back greenhouse gas emission standards for heavy- and light-duty vehicles for model year 2027 and later.
Zeldin is already expected to be taking steps to undo a key scientific finding from 2009 that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health that underpins all of the EPA's greenhouse-gas regulations.
