An EPA proposal to (almost) eliminate climate pollution from power plants

The Jim Bridger coal plant in Point of Rocks, Wyo., powers more than a million homes across six Western states. Under proposed federal rules many coal plants would have to dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions in coming years. (Julia Simon/NPR)

Coal and gas-fired power plants would have to eliminate nearly all their climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions in just a little over a decade, under proposed regulations issued today by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Owners of those plants have been allowed to spew climate-warming carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere for more than a century. If these proposed regulations are finalized, they would come close to putting a stop to that practice.