Senator Shelley Moore Capito is applauding the Trump administration’s move to roll back a major Biden era climate policy that was aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, especially those fired by coal and natural gas.

“I think the repeal of the Clean Power Plan, 2.0 again, returns us to common sense,” Capito said in a briefing with West Virginia reporters, responding to a question by Charles Young of West Virginia News.

The prior standards rolled out by the Biden Administration’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would have required utilities to either reduce or capture emissions tied to climate change. One way of complying with the rules could be through the use of carbon capture technology, but that traditionally has been too expensive for viability.

EPA had said its new standards for coal- and gas-powered plants would avoid emissions of up to 617 million metric tons of total carbon dioxide (CO₂) through 2042. The proposals would also result in cutting tens of thousands of tons of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide, the agency said at the time.

“This rule that the Biden administration put forward basically has onerous enforcement mechanisms that would basically retire every coal plant, if not before 2035, then by 2035 unless they’re capturing 90% of the carbon emissions, which is not achievable at this point,” Capito said today.

“Also natural gas — same thing. We are looking at a shortage of power in this country. We need more power, not less. And yet this Clean Power Plan would pull some of our base load power off the grid, and I think would really put us in a perilous situation.”

The Trump administration this week announced plans to roll back the policies sometimes referred to as Clean Power Plan 2.0. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the move is necessary because Obama and Biden-era standards were “regulating coal, oil and gas out of existence.”

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the original 2015 Clean Power Plan in West Virginia v. EPA, holding that the major questions doctrine barred EPA from leveraging the Clean Air Act to manipulate Americans’ energy choices and shift the balance of the nation’s electrical fuel mix.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey, whose office was central to the legal fight against the first Clean Power Plan when he was attorney general, also praised the Trump administration move.

“As Attorney General, I fought back against the Green New Deal and led a national coalition of states in the legal battle to stop the Clean Power Plan, securing a historic and unprecedented stay from the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016,” Morrisey said in a statement.

Now, Morrisey said, “this action by Administrator Zeldin restores constitutional order and delivers long-overdue relief to states like West Virginia that have been unfairly targeted for years.”

Congressman Riley Moore, R-W.Va., also expressed support for the Trump administration rollback of the environmental standards.

“The Biden-Harris war on affordable, reliable American energy ends today. By reversing these job-killing regulations, President Trump and Administrator Zeldin make it clear: the Green New Scam is over and American energy dominance is back,” Moore said in a statement.

“These EPA regulations would have shuttered every coal-fired power plant in America, bankrupted many coal mines, laid off thousands of coal miners, and driven up the cost of electricity for every American.”

American Electric Power described being committed to working with state and federal policymakers to find solutions for delivering affordable, reliable electricity to customers.

AEP said the prior EPA standards “would have threatened our ability to do so by requiring the use of unproven technology. We appreciate that the administration recognized the impact of this regulation and took action.

“We look forward to engaging in the rulemaking process by collaborating with stakeholders to provide robust comments during EPA’s comment period. This effort is critical for ensuring an outcome that will enable us to deliver dependable, affordable power to the communities we serve.”