In a letter sent to President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Duke Energy and other utility companies called for “swift and sustained action” to roll back new limits on both greenhouse gas emissions and coal ash produced by power plants.

The two regulations targeted by the utilities were unveiled by the Biden administration, and imposed landmark rules to try to clean up the country’s power generation to help mitigate climate change.

The letter, dated Jan. 15 and addressed to former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, has not been previously reported. Zeldin has not yet been confirmed by the Senate to lead the environmental agency, but that process could be completed by the end of the week.

The first category of rules cited by the companies, related to greenhouse gas emissions, essentially requires coal-fired plants to capture smokestack emissions or shut down by 2032, while many new natural gas-fired power plants must eliminate 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions. To do this, utilities must employ expensive carbon capture technology, likely making zero-emissions options like solar more attractive. The utilities have said carbon-capture technology is untested and “impossible to implement” by the 2032 deadline.

“If not quickly rescinded, the (greenhouse gas) rule … will have grave consequences for the reliability of the nation’s power system and the cost of electricity,” the companies wrote in the letter.

Duke Energy’s senior vice president of enterprise safety and generation services, Jessica Bednarcik, is the first signatory on the letter, which also includes companies from Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio and Colorado.

Duke, which has about two million customers in Florida including in Central Florida counties, generates the vast majority of its electricity in the state by burning natural gas. Coal ranks as its No. 2 fuel source in Florida, according to utility data firm FindEnergy, and is primarily burned at its power plant in Crystal River.

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Coal ash, which is a byproduct of burning coal, is the target of the second regulation Duke and the other companies want to see rolled back. That 2024 rule was designed to close a loophole in preexisting regulations, therefore requiring more power plants to address the ash, which can contain toxic chemicals like arsenic.

In the utility companies’ letter, they argue that the expansion of the rule exceeded the environmental agency’s authority and “increased costs for power companies and consumers without corresponding benefits to public health or the environment.”

Duke Energy Florida spokesperson Ana Gibbs declined to comment further, saying the letter’s contents “speak for itself.”

Environmental advocates decried the companies’ requests.

Susannah Randolph, Sierra Club Florida chapter drector, called the letter “repugnant.”

“By asking for the greenhouse gas standards to be lowered, these companies are betraying their customers to bolster their profits,“ she said. ”Rather than asking for a hall pass on protecting our health and the environment, these companies should invest in renewable energy that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, improves health outcomes, and is more reliable during extreme weather.”

Lisa Evans, a senior counsel for the environmental firm Earthjustice who specializes in hazardous waste laws, said the Trump administration cannot simply roll back the coal ash rules, in part because of years of groundwater pollution data the power companies have been required to collect near ash sites.

“The letter is bluster with no punches, thunder with no lightning… Many of these demands have already been litigated in federal court, and industry lost,” she said. “The public record reveals that nearly all coal plants have contaminated groundwater with dangerous toxic chemicals above federal standards. Any new regulation proposed by the Trump administration will have to address this alarming situation.”

When asked about the letter by email, a spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency, who did not provide their name, said the agency is reviewing it.

“President Trump advanced conservation and environmental stewardship while promoting economic growth for families across the country in his first term and will continue to do so this term,” they wrote.