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It’s a great day for people who hate the idea of a livable planet. For everyone else, not so much. The Trump administration today plans to both rescind existing rules on climate pollution from power plants and undercut future administrations’ ability to regulate those emissions. These moves face court challenges. But if they go through, they would gut what’s left of U.S. climate policy and undermine efforts to stave off the worst effects of climate change.

What do the new Trump rules actually say?

Both the Obama and Biden administrations used the Clean Air Act to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which drive climate change. Now Donald Trump, who has labeled climate change a “con job” and twice pulled out of international agreements meant to mitigate it, is reversing those efforts. One of his new rules would reportedly eliminate Biden-era regulations that required power plants that run on coal and natural gas to limit their carbon emissions. If that rule matches a version reporters obtained last year, it will argue that power plants don’t contribute significantly to pollution or climate change because they’re “a small and decreasing part of global emissions,” even though coal remains the worst-polluting fossil fuel. The second proposal would be even more far-reaching. It’s expected to claim that power plant emissions in general don’t meet the Clean Air Act’s standard for Environmental Protection Agency regulation.

Why is that a big deal? 

The power industry is, behind transportation, the second-largest source of........

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