September 18, 2026 - Leaders in North Dakota are celebrating a new ruling from the Environmental Protection Agency.

This week, the EPA says it’s repealed the Biden-era greenhouse gas regulations that were set to be in place for the next six years. Under that rule, coal-fired power plants would be required to cut or capture 90% of their carbon emissions by 2032.

North Dakota leaders say that rule would shut down coal plants all over the country, and would have endangered North Dakota’s plants.

Jonathan Fortner, president and CEO of the Lignite Energy Council, says the coal industry currently supports around 12,000 jobs in North Dakota.

“We are the lowest residential cost for electricity rates in the country here in North Dakota. All those things were put at risk by this rule,” Fortner said. “Any time that you’ve got a rule that says, hey, you have to do all these things or face a shutdown, we don’t think that those are reasonable or those are designed to be achievable. They’re designed to achieve a political end that Congress just did not grant the agency to do.”

Fortner says North Dakota is one of only four states that have never violated federal EPA ambient air quality standards.