On Tuesday, the Trump administration proposed a replacement rule for former President Obama's Clean Power Plan, and its details favor coal power plant owners.

On Monday night, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler signed a proposed rule , called the "Affordable Clean Energy Rule," which would direct states to inventory their power plants and come up with a plan to regulate the greenhouse gas emissions of individual plants. By contrast, the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan established targets for emissions across each state's energy sector, a move that would have incentivized the industry to leave behind the highest-carbon-emitting power sources, like coal.

The Trump administration has argued that the EPA can't use the Clean Air Act to set emissions levels for the energy industry in general but instead could regulate emissions at each individual source of emissions. The argument has not yet been tested in court, although opposition to the rule proposed today may give the administration a chance to try it out.

Obama's Clean Power Plan would have reduced carbon emissions dramatically, as much as 19 percent from projected levels by 2030. By contrast, the EPA says that the new rule would reduce carbon emissions from the power sector by just 1.5 percent (PDF). The EPA's own scientific analysis of its new rule reportedly admits that the Affordable Clean Energy Rule could lead to nearly 1,400 extra deaths per year compared to what would have occurred under the Clean Power Plan. Particulates from coal-fired power plants lead to a variety of bad health effects, from asthma to premature heart disease.

The Affordable Clean Energy Rule incentivizes power plant owners to increase their plants' efficiency. The new rule would allow coal power plant owners to make efficiency upgrades without triggering any additional costly repairs, as the previous administration hoped to do. That would allow older coal power plants to retrofit with cheaper efficiency upgrades, which could in turn make it cheaper to keep those power plants running for longer. Although efficiency upgrades would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced per unit of power, overall carbon emissions could increase if more efficient coal power plants are able to compete on price with natural gas.

Heavy opposition

Still, the low cost of natural gas and renewable power is not affected by these new rules; the rules only make it somewhat easier for coal to compete. And it may not be enough to save many coal plants. According to The Wall Street Journal, "[the EPA's] own numbers forecast the power sector’s coal consumption to keep shrinking under this proposal, though at a slower rate."

The EPA must take comment on the proposal for the next 60 days, and environmental groups are sure to fight it. The Trump administration's rule is expected to face the same opposition that the Clean Power Plan faced: that rule was put on hold by the Supreme Court in February 2016, and when Trump took office he moved to do away with the plan entirely.

In a press release on Tuesday, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) called the Affordable Clean Energy Rule "worse than nothing."

"To prop up failing coal-fired power plants, the proposal sets paltry pollution limits based on minimal 'tune-ups' at those power plants and then authorizes states to weaken the standards even further – or even eliminate them altogether," Lissa Lynch, staff attorney for the NRDC, writes.

Bob Keefe, the head of a group called Environmental Entrepreneurs, wrote in a statement that "Rolling back the Clean Power Plan is the wrong move—potentially costing 560,000 jobs and $52 billion in GDP—but this proposal solidifies that the administration has no interest in producing a meaningful energy vision that benefits American business and workers and helps America compete in a 21st century economy."

"Clean energy jobs now vastly outnumber fossil fuel jobs, but this administration once again wants to put its thumb on the market scale to prop up these industries and slow the growth of American jobs," Keefe added.