Republican leaders in both chambers of Congress said that a Chinese government official’s opposition to the proposed repeal of a Biden-era regulation on power plants shows that China wants America to limit its domestic energy supply through self-imposed “red tape and burdensome regulations.”
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin has moved to repeal Biden-era regulations on “greenhouse gas” emissions standards for power plants under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act as well as the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) that have led to the closure of coal-, oil-, and gas-fired power plants that would raise the cost of energy for American families and imperil the reliability of the electric grid.
Zeldin said in a statement in June:
Affordable, reliable electricity is key to the American dream and a natural byproduct of national energy dominance. According to many, the primary purpose of these Biden-Harris administration regulations was to destroy industries that didn’t align with their narrow-minded climate change zealotry. Together, these rules have been criticized as being designed to regulate coal, oil and gas out of existence.
According to EPA estimates at the time of Zeldin’s statement, the repeal of the Biden-era regulations would save Americans “$19 billion in regulatory costs over two decades beginning in 2026, or about $1.2 billion a year.”
Now that Americans may experience lower energy costs, it appears that Jiao Yang, deputy director general for China on affairs relating to the World Trade Organizations and Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO/TBT), submitted a comment to the EPA opposing the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal these Biden-era regulations.
Yang wrote in his comment to the EPA that the repeal of the MATS standard is a “self-defeating environmental policy” that “has created significant uncertainty in trade and increased operational risks for businesses.” Yang said the American government should maintain “technological neutrality.”
The Chinese government official stated that America should focus on “clean energy” instead of coal- and oil-fired power plants.
“For the coal- and oil-fired power generation sectors, this necessitates a clean energy transition rather than reverting to outdated practices that lower environmental performance benchmarks,” he wrote.
China has reportedly experienced a “10-year high” of coal power plant construction. A 2023 report found that China has built six times more coal power plants than all other countries combined in the last seven years.
Flora Champenois, research analyst at Global Energy Monitor, said, “Everybody else is moving away from coal and China seems to be stepping on the gas. We saw that China has six times as much plants starting construction as the rest of the world combined.”
Republican leaders in Congress believe the Chinese government official’s comments reveal that China wants America to continue to be hamstrung by onerous regulations.
“By rolling back costly and ineffective regulations, Administrator Zeldin and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are working to support the deployment of reliable and affordable energy to American families,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) told Breitbart News in a statement.
He continued, “China’s decision to file comments in opposition to a proposal undoing Biden-Harris power plant regulations is questionable at best, especially given the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) track record of weak environmental laws and trade practices. Throughout this rule making process and other regulatory reforms, the EPA has been open and transparent with seeking public engagement and participation, something that would be wholly foreign to the CCP.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), the chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, told Breitbart News in a statement, “It’s both concerning and hypocritical that the Chinese government would provide their perspective on American energy regulations. EPA Administrator Zeldin is doing an excellent job repealing the burdensome and illegal rules from the prior Administration, and China’s disagreement is a good sign he’s on the right track.”
Other lawmakers said the Chinese government official’s comments reveal that America is “back.”
Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) said in a statement to Breitbart News, “Communist China is America’s greatest external threat. It’s encouraging to see the Chinese Communist Party concerned with this administration’s energy policies. I’m grateful to have a president that is unleashing American energy once again. Our adversaries, like Communist China, are taking notice that America is back.”
“The Chinese Communist Party has no business weighing in on America’s energy policies. If it wasn’t already obvious, it is clear that China wants to limit our domestic energy supply through self-imposed red tape and burdensome regulations,” Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, told Breitbart News. “We cannot allow a foreign adversary to shape U.S. laws, raise costs on American families, or undermine our energy security.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
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