US Power Sector: Developments in 2025 So Far

Since our 2025 Power Sector Lookahead article was published, we’ve had time to see how the change in administration might impact the power sector and have also seen a couple of factors not related to the administration continue to develop. One factor that has not changed is the initiative to permit and build new electricity generating capacity as quickly as possible. As discussed in the Lookahead article, the push for more generating capacity is driven primarily to support the rapidly expanding data center sector, which itself is being driven by the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI). Many of our clients are actively permitting new power generation facilities, primarily gas-fired, all across the country. With that, here are some of the things we’ve seen so far in 2025.

Executive Orders

On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued a flurry of executive orders (EO) related to power generation, starting with Declaring a National Energy Emergency in an EO intended to facilitate not only the construction of new generating power, but also improving the capacity of the national grid to carry that new power. The EO also instructed several agencies to identify all regulations that might hinder energy development for potential revocation where legally possible and included the use of emergency actions to bypass the Endangered Species Act. The general purpose of the EO was to ease and speed up the process of developing new power plants. The idea of an “energy emergency,” however, was seemingly contradicted by another EO issued the same day: Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects that put a halt on offshore and onshore wind leasing. The EO also put a temporary halt to all ongoing permitting actions for offshore wind, which to date is still in place. While ALL4 is aware of several projects that are currently dead in the water (pun intended) due to this halt, those offshore wind projects that have already received their permits and are under construction appear to be continuing. Several other EO’s were issued to revoke most of the previous administration’s climate policies, including support for electric vehicles (EV) and grants for renewable energy projects. On April 8^th, the EO Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 14241 was issued with the intent of promoting coal as an energy source and easing mining restrictions by categorizing coal officially as a “mineral” under the March 20^th executive order 14241, which authorized mining of critical minerals.

All the referenced EOs generally set the table for a deregulatory environment designed to further fast track power projects. It remains to be seen whether the ban on the new development of offshore wind remains in place given the need to get new capacity on the grid as quickly as possible. The EO regarding coal seems unlikely to have any real impact on the sector other than perhaps to increase coal exports, though it is possible that some coal-fired power plants currently scheduled to retire might remain operational for a bit longer. It is very unlikely that we’ll see significant (if any) new coal-fired generation permitted and constructed given the length of time required to bring a new coal-fired plant online and the unfavorable economics of such projects.

Regulatory Direction

With the new administration, we don’t expect any significant new regulatory requirements for the sector and in fact expect to see attempts to relax or remove existing regulations. This approach was signaled when U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the largest deregulatory action in U.S. history on March 12^th. For more on what has been referred to as the “31 flavors” because of the 31 items potentially targeted for review, see our 4 The Record article for a discussion of those actions that might impact the power sector.

Meanwhile, several updates on the regulatory actions that we discussed in the Lookahead article, and some new ones, include:

• The comment period for the updated Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources (NSPS) for Stationary Combustion Turbines (Subpart KKKKa) has now closed and the comments are under consideration by U.S. EPA. Based on what we’ve heard, U.S. EPA seems to be in a more collaborative mood, and we anticipate that some of the proposed reduced nitrogen oxide (NO_X) emissions standards may be revised in the final rule due in November.
• Revisions to the National Emissions Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Stationary Combustion Turbines (Subpart YYYY) were expected to be proposed in mid-2025, although there is no sign of them at this point. Some possibilities could be a very minimalistic rule, or potentially even an attempt at delisting the NESHAP altogether, though that would almost certainly result in legal action.
• On April 15^th, after setting up an e-mail inbox for industry to request Presidential Exemptions from NESHAP that were made more stringent in 2024, U.S. EPA approved two-year compliance exemptions for 47 coal-fired power plants from the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule, supporting the coal-related executive order.
• On May 2^nd, U.S. EPA sent proposals for two sets of repeals, the carbon standards repeal proposal and the MATS rule repeal proposal, to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. Although at this time the details of what is in those proposals are not available, we expect that the Part 60 greenhouse gas (GHG) standards for electric generating units will be repealed or substantially gutted and the 2024 revisions to the MATS rule will be rolled back.

Power Sector Impact

The overall impact of the EOs and deregulatory focus to the power sector is twofold; on the one hand, this administration will probably not be adding any meaningful new rules, and utilities that were concerned with having to comply with rules like MATS and the GHG rules have seen those fears, along with concerns related to new regulations the previous administration might have brought forth, relaxed. On the other hand, the EOs may in fact slow new capacity growth in the U.S. — new gas-fired power is already being brought online as fast as the supply chain can keep up, but the limitations on new wind power may slow its deployment, without an obvious alternative to take up that slack.

The effects of the change in administration aside, ALL4 continues to see several fast-track programs bring new gas-fired power generating facilities online, including the PJM regional transmission organization (RTO)’s Reliability Resource Initiative, and Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO)’s similar proposed Expedited Resource Adequacy Study (ERAS) program for its region. These fast-track programs are tempered by the fact that the large turbine vendors in the U.S. are currently backlogged on combustion turbine orders for two or more years, with no relief in sight. The supply chain concerns are further exacerbated by cost concerns associated with general confusion about the administration’s tariff program and their associated international trade issues. Regardless, utilities, power developers, and data center developers are expected to continue to permit and construct facilities as fast as the permitting process and supply chain for equipment will let them.

ALL4 will continue to track regulatory and technical developments related to the power sector in this period of rapid growth. ALL4 has significant power sector experience related to siting, permitting, and compliance for electricity-generating facilities combined with established working relationships with relevant industry organizations, numerous state agencies, and U.S. EPA. ALL4 provides a full range of environmental health and safety (EHS) and data services to our clients to help them meet their permitting, monitoring, testing, recordkeeping, and reporting challenges. If you’d like to learn more about our capabilities in the power sector, please contact Rich Hamel or your ALL4 project manager.