The action and its date
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin finalised the repeal of most of the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards on Monday 14 September 2026, at the G20 Energy Abundance Ministerial in Houston. The agency proposed rescinding every remaining greenhouse gas standard for the power sector in the same action.
The 2024 rule required existing coal plants and new natural gas plants to control 90 percent of their carbon dioxide emissions. The repeal removes that requirement for the covered plants.
EPA describes the action as the largest power sector deregulatory action in United States history and puts the savings at $310 billion. Its regulatory impact analysis carries that figure as a present value of social cost savings in 2024 dollars, with an equivalent annualised value of $23 billion. The model does not account for changes in environmental quality.
The final rule was published on 17 September 2026 and takes effect on 16 November 2026. The separate proposal to rescind the remaining power sector standards is not final, and comments on it close on 2 November 2026.
Where a hotel's exposure sits
A hotel buys electricity and gas at a published tariff. The generation behind that tariff now carries fewer compliance costs than it did in August. No publisher has attached a share of the agency's $310 billion figure to a utility service territory, a customer class or a property, and no hotel company has published a tariff impact from the repeal. An operator who wants a number asks the utility for its filed cost of service after the rule change.
The column behind the coverage
Glenn Hasek published his response on 18 September 2026 in Green Lodging News, where he is publisher and editor. He writes that he treated the agency as a partner to the lodging industry for the length of his tenure, and that it now pursues a mission that runs counter to the goals of the companies he covers. He closes on the charge that the agency's actions are anti-science and profit-motivated. Those clauses are his opinion, and the column presents them as such.
The dates an operator can put in a plan
Two dates are firm. The repeal was finalised on 14 September 2026, and the rule takes effect on 16 November 2026. EPA also rescinded the 2009 endangerment finding and the motor vehicle greenhouse gas standards in February 2026.
The documents that would move a hotel's operating plan are unpublished. No hotel brand, management company or ownership group has published a revised energy or emissions target in response to the repeal. No utility has published a restated cost of service. No corporate travel buyer has published a change to its environmental criteria.
Until those documents appear, the published change is the compliance obligation that left the power sector.