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

Almost all coal-fired power plants in the US had the ability to comply with rules limiting their emission of dangerous pollutants such as mercury that can cause brain damage in children. Despite this, Donald Trump’s administration decided to demolish the standards anyway.

Last week, the Trump administration said it is loosening restrictions on air toxins from mercury, lead and other heavy metals that are released by coal 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 placed on mercury, lead and arsenic pollution in 2024 under Joe Biden’s administration, updating the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (Mats) first enacted in 2012, but have now been ditched by Trump. The pollution cuts “would have destroyed reliable American energy”, said Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

However, the EPA’s own previous analysis shows that only 27 coal plants across the US, out of around 219 total coal facilities, would have to adopt any sort of technological upgrade, such as filters in their smokestacks, to meet the stronger standards.

This means that the safeguards have been entirely reversed by the Trump administration in order to allow a minority of the US’s dirtiest, most unhealthy coal plants, located in states including Wyoming, Texas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, to continue as they are.

“It’s infuriating that this rollback is happening given that only a small number of coal plants would have to make upgrades,” said Surbhi Sarang, senior attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). “This decision is completely ridiculous and not based on any reality. We can easily have a reliable grid and cleaner air at the same time, we have the technology to do so.

“These Mats rules have been incredibly successful in reducing mercury pollution that we know is a risk to children’s brains and can cause cardiovascular and kidney disease. The health impacts of this rollback will be felt in communities living near these coal plants.”

The Trump administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to reverse coal’s long decline in the US, forcing coal plants to remain open beyond their planned retirement dates, incurring large costs for residents, and requiring the department of defense to purchase electricity sourced from coal, the most carbon-dense fuel that is a key driver of the climate crisis.

This month the president was crowned the “undisputed champion of beautiful clean coal” at an unusual ceremony held at the White House. “Under our leadership, we’re becoming a massive energy exporter,” said Trump, surrounded by coal miners wearing helmets. “We’re lifting up our hard-working American miners like nobody has ever done before.”

Last year, the administration even told coal plant operators to simply send an email to the president to ask for emergency exemptions from air pollution rules. None of these subsequent requests were denied by Trump.

In total, 71 coal plants across 24 states were allowed to opt out of the mercury pollution rules that the administration is now formally unwinding, according to records obtained by the EDF.

Not only did Trump agree to every single request for an exemption, for up to two years, these exemptions were provided for longer periods than many of the coal plant operators asked for and handed out even when operators said they had the technology to comply with the limits.

Major coal plants across the US received a waiver from pollution rules, including the huge James H Miller coal facility in Alabama, which in recent years has been cited as the largest single greenhouse gas emitter in the US, according to EPA data (Alabama Power has described it as a ‘key part’ of its supply to customers).

“The president just did a blanket exemption without looking at the facilities or tailoring the requests in any way,” said EDF’s Sarang. “There was none of that – it was just send an email to the EPA and get a free pass to pollute.”

An EPA spokesperson did not address questions on the capability of coal plants to meet the Biden’s 2024 Mats regulation but added the rule ‘“imposed massive costs and red tape on coal-and oil-fired power plants, driving up the cost of living for American families, jeopardizing our grid reliability and national security and limiting American energy and manufacturing dominance”.

“The Trump EPA’s repeal of the Biden 2024 Mats amendments ensures the continuation of the highly effective and robust 2012 Mats requirements, which have protected of public health and the environment for years.”

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As well as rolling back a host of air and water pollution rules, the Trump administration recently scrapped a key finding that greenhouse gases harm human health, a determination that underpins all climate laws in the US. This rollback, as well as the Mats reversal, is being challenged by environmental groups in court.

The president has called clean energy a “scam” and praised coal as “beautiful” and “clean” despite its unequivocal role in causing severe illnesses and deaths and worsening the climate crisis.

On Tuesday, Trump said during his state of the union speech to Congress that his energy policies have lowered costs for households when, in fact, electricity prices rose for Americans in the past year.

“Nobody can believe when they see the kind of numbers, especially energy,” Trump said. “When they see energy going down to numbers like that. They cannot believe it.”