The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently axed measures meant to reduce pollution from coal plants.
It’s reverting back to the Obama-era Mercury and Air Toxics Standards from 2012, which the agency says are “highly effective,” cutting mercury pollution from coal plants by about 90% by 2021.
In 2024, the Biden administration updated rules in an attempt to crack down on other remaining pollutants. This strengthened the emissions standards for filterable particulate matter, tightened mercury standards for lignite-fired power plants and required continuous emission monitoring systems.
However, the EPA’s mountain and plains regional administrator, Cyrus Western, said the Biden regulations could have meant plants burning less coal.
“So if you stop burning coal, that means you stop buying coal,” Western, also a former Wyoming state lawmaker, told the Mountain West News Bureau. “And if [plants] don't have a customer, they gotta shut down operations and lay people off.”
But environmental groups say the move is an attack on public health. The nonprofit Earthjustice said the new standards allow plants to emit harmful mercury, heavy metals and soot, which it says can lead to heart and lung disease, cancer and premature death.
“With this move, the Trump administration is wiping out health protections critical for protecting children from toxins like mercury just to save the coal industry some money,” Earthjustice attorney Nicholas Morales said in a press release.
Meanwhile, Cyrus Western said not one extra ton of mercury will be emitted under the new standards, since the 2024 standard never fully went into effect.
“ We can have high environmental standards, high environmental regulations … but simultaneously allowing [plants] to fulfill their business models and create these middle class jobs that are so important and getting rarer in America,” he said.
The Biden rules could have resulted in $47 million in climate and health benefits per year, but would also have resulted in $96 million in compliance costs, according to an EPA fact sheet.
The agency says reverting back to the old 2012 rules could save the agency 78 million dollars annually.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
