Trump's EPA rollbacks: Trading clean air for wealthy plant owners' profits

EPA says it will save the US $19 billion over two decades , or about $1.2 billion a year.

But experts say this represents a starkly uneven trade-off for the public health and climate benefits of power plant operators.

EPA is proposing to entirely ditch all restrictions on planet-heating emissions coming from US power plants, the second largest source of carbon pollution in the country.

The EPA announcement makes good on Trump ’s campaign trail promise to “unleash American energy” and open “dozens and dozens” of power plants.

Taken together, his planned environmental rollbacks will result in 22,800 additional pollution-related deaths and a $1.1 trillion reduction in US GDP by 2035 .