GEOFF BENNETT: The Environmental Protection Agency announced today it's repealing rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants.

The move eliminates requirements that would have forced some power plants to sharply reduce their emissions, including through technology such as carbon capture and storage.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the rollback will help cut red tape.

LEE ZELDIN, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator: Our actions result in savings into the trillions of dollars.

It means providing companies that choose to invest in America with the certainty that their work will pay off and their money won't get tied up in unnecessary, burdensome regulatory battles informed more by ideology than practical environmental protection outcomes.

GEOFF BENNETT: Power plants are the nation's second largest source of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.

For more on what this rollback means for U.S.

climate policy, we're joined now by Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund.

Thank you for being with us.

VICKIE PATTON, General Counsel, Environmental Defense Fund: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: So the coal industry has described the Biden era rules as overreach.

You now have the Trump EPA saying that those same rules make it harder and more expensive to generate the kind of power the country needs.

Is there any part of that argument that you accept?

VICKIE PATTON: Today, the Trump administration moved to eliminate any standards, any limitations on the dangerous climate pollution from power plant smokestacks.

I want to be clear.

That is one of the single largest sources of harmful pollution in our country.

It's also a rising source of pollution as communities see increasing data centers.

And if the companies behind those data centers decide to power them with high-emitting power plants, that means that those communities and those neighborhoods and those people are bearing more pollution.

And it's just -- it's not responsible to do nothing in the face of this serious pollution.

It's analogous to your house being on fire and the fire department kind of driving by, instead of taking action.

Look, we're Americans.

We know how to take action to protect our children's health from this harmful pollution and to do it in a way that protects people's pocketbooks with clean, affordable and abundant energy.

So the path forward is not inaction.

The path forward is not reckless irresponsibility.

The path forward is America rolling up its sleeves, working together, and protecting our children's health and growing our economy.

GEOFF BENNETT: The EPA is also making a broader legal argument about whether greenhouse gas emissions can be regulated this way at all.

How significant is that, especially for future administrations?

VICKIE PATTON: You know, the law in the United States for decades has been that EPA has a responsibility under our nation's clean air laws to protect the American people from harmful pollution.

And when you think about kind of the impacts here that are at stake, they're really quite extensive.

The Trump administration was heralding kind of these cost savings.

I want to be very clear that they are assigning no value, no value whatsoever to protecting the American people from the harmful pollution.

Those numbers that they're touting, those are the -- that's the money that large industrial emitters will save in not doing anything to address this harmful pollution.

But the impacts, the impacts are more asthma attacks.

It's more missed work days, missed school days.

It's more hospital visits and doctor's visits.

Look, just this summer, there were heat waves across our country, major fires and smoke that harmed people.

You were just talking about sort of the just really intense weather events, the flooding, and then in parts of the country suffering very serious droughts.

These are really high costs.

And these costs, when we experience them as American people, they mean higher insurance costs.

They mean higher health care costs.

It makes it harder for us to make ends meet.

That's why our nation's clean air laws were designed, to help protect people from pollution.

And it's not the right direction for our country to assign no value to doing that.

And it is the responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency to move forward and ensure we have limits on this very harmful pollution.

GEOFF BENNETT: But on the question, to what degree could this potentially limit the future -- the ability of a future administration to regulate power plant emissions, because that's in many ways the bigger story here?

VICKIE PATTON: This -- the Trump administration has, in multiple different decisions, including the actions that it's taking today, endeavored to walk away from its responsibility to protect the American people from harmful pollution under our nation's clean air laws.

The law is clear.

It's clear in the written terms of the statute.

It's clear in terms of rulings by the United States Supreme Court, multiple rulings, that EPA has a responsibility to protect the American people from dangerous pollution.

And this pollution is quite dangerous.

It's very serious.

GEOFF BENNETT: If the federal government is no longer requiring these reductions, to what degree could states or local utilities step in?

VICKIE PATTON: States and local governments and local power companies can take all sorts of important actions to address this harmful pollution.

Here, in my home state of Colorado, we found that not only can we move forward together, rolling up our sleeves, we can address this harmful pollution, but we can also do it in a way that benefits people's lives economically.

And so, in rural Colorado, we have seen farmers keep their farms and their families by receiving lease payments to host wind turbines.

In other parts of Colorado, we have seen major employers, manufacturers save hundreds and hundreds of jobs because they're relying on clean, affordable power that's lowered their operating costs.

And so, yes, definitely, states can take action, local governments can take action.

We can all encourage and ensure that our power providers do their fair share.

What we need, though, what we need are these comprehensive national emission limits.

This is a big problem that has very serious impacts on millions of people all across the country, and every American deserves these protections.

GEOFF BENNETT: Vickie Patton with the Environmental Defense Fund, thank you for joining us this evening.

VICKIE PATTON: Thank you so much.

GEOFF BENNETT: A note: The "NewsHour" has requested an interview with the Environmental Protection Agency's Lee Zeldin.