Most US coal plants could meet air pollution rules. Trump weakened them anyway | Trump administration

Nearly all coal-fired power plants in the United States were able to comply with rules limiting their emissions of dangerous pollutants such as mercury, which can cause brain damage in children. Despite this, the Donald Trump administration still decided to demolish these standards.

Last week, the Trump administration announced it was easing restrictions on air toxins from mercury, lead and other heavy metals released by coal-fired power plants. Such pollution is known to be neurotoxic and has been linked to irreversible brain damage in children and infants, as well as heart disease and cancer in adults.

Stricter limits were imposed on mercury, lead and arsenic pollution in 2024 under the Joe Biden administration, updating the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) first enacted in 2012 but have now been scrapped by Trump. Pollution reductions “would have destroyed reliable American energy,” said Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

However, the EPA’s previous analysis shows that only 27 coal-fired power plants in the United States, out of about 219 total coal-fired facilities, would need to adopt any technology upgrade, such as filters in their smokestacks, to meet the stricter standards.

This means that safeguards have been rolled back entirely by the Trump administration in order to allow a minority of America’s dirtiest and most unsanitary coal plants, located in states like Wyoming, Texas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, to continue as is.

“It is infuriating that this setback is happening given that only a small number of coal plants are expected to be upgraded,” said Surbhi Sarang, senior attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). “This decision is completely ridiculous and has no basis in reality. We can easily have a reliable network and cleaner air at the same time, we have the technology to do it.

“These Mats Rules have had incredible success in reducing mercury pollution which we know poses a risk to children’s brains and can cause cardiovascular and kidney disease. The health impacts of this decline will be felt in communities living near these coal-fired power plants.

The Trump administration has made extraordinary efforts to reverse the long decline of coal in the United States, forcing coal plants to stay open beyond their scheduled retirement dates, carrying significant costs for residents and requiring the Department of Defense to purchase electricity from coal, the most carbon-dense fuel and a major driver of the climate crisis.

This month, the president was crowned the “undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal” in an unusual ceremony at the White House. “Under our leadership, we are becoming a massive exporter of energy,” Trump said, surrounded by coal miners wearing hard hats. “We are lifting up our hard-working American miners like no one has ever done before.”

Last year, the administration even asked coal plant operators to simply email the president to request emergency waivers from air pollution rules. None of these subsequent requests were refused by Trump.

A total of 71 coal plants across 24 states have been allowed to opt out of mercury pollution rules that the administration is officially rolling back, according to records obtained by EDF.

Not only did Trump agree to every exemption request, but for a period of up to two years, these exemptions were granted for periods longer than those requested by many coal plant operators and granted even when operators said they had the technology to comply with the limits.

Major US coal plants have been granted a waiver of pollution rules, including the massive James H Miller coal plant in Alabama, which has been cited in recent years as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the US, according to EPA data (Alabama Power has described it as a “key part” of its supply to customers).

“The president simply granted a blanket exemption without reviewing the facilities or adapting the requests in any way,” EDF’s Sarang said. “There was none of that – you just email the EPA and get a free pass to pollute.”

An EPA spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether coal plants could meet Biden’s Mats 2024 regulations, but added that the rule “imposes massive costs and red tape on coal and oil-fired power plants, increasing the cost of living for American families, jeopardizing our grid reliability and national security, and limiting America’s energy and manufacturing dominance.”

“EPA’s repeal of the Biden 2024 Mats Amendments ensures the continuation of the highly effective and robust 2012 Mats requirements that have protected public health and the environment for years.”

In addition to rescinding a series of rules on air and water pollution, the Trump administration recently abandoned a key finding that greenhouse gases harm human health, a determination that underpins all U.S. climate laws. This rollback, as well as Mats’s ouster, are being challenged in court by environmental groups.

The president has called clean energy a “scam” and praised coal as “beautiful” and “clean,” despite its unequivocal role in causing serious illness and death and worsening the climate crisis.

On Tuesday, Trump said during his State of the Union address to Congress that his energy policies have lowered costs for households when, in fact, electricity prices have increased for Americans over the past year.

“Nobody can believe when you see these kinds of numbers, especially in energy,” Trump said. “When they see the energy go down to numbers like that, they can’t believe it.”