The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday weakened limits on mercury and other toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants, continuing the Trump administration’s effort to reduce environmental protections on fossil fuels. The agency announced the move at the Mill Creek Generating Station, a coal plant along the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky, saying it would save the industry hundreds of millions of dollars.
The decision affects emissions linked to brain damage in children and heart disease in adults. Environmental advocates say the tightened standards the Trump administration is now rolling back had reduced mercury emissions by nearly 90 percent, saving lives in communities near coal plants.
The change specifically repeals a 2024 rule that strengthened mercury and air toxics requirements beyond the 2012 baseline. The Biden administration had sought to tighten standards even further, but the Trump administration reversed that effort.
Coal-fired power plants release mercury into the atmosphere, where it falls in rain or settles through gravity, entering the food chain through fish and other items people consume.
Mercury Standards Weakened
Environmental groups credited the tightened standards with saving lives and improving health in communities near coal plants. Industry groups countered that the tougher standards, combined with other regulations limiting coal plant emissions, made operating them too expensive and contributed to plant shutdowns.
“For too long, the entire coal supply chain has been the target of bad and onerous environmental regulations,” said Michelle Bloodworth, CEO of America’s Power, a coal industry group.
Broader Environmental Rollback
The mercury standards reversal fits within the Trump administration’s larger effort to roll back environmental regulations. The administration has extended deadlines for dozens of coal-fired power plants to comply with Clean Air Act rules and issued emergency orders halting the planned shutdowns of several plants. Officials say the plants produce reliable power during major storms and as demand from new data centers strains the grid, though critics note the move will increase power costs and worsen emissions.
Zeldin said the actions marked “the death of the ‘green new scam,’” signaling the administration’s pivot away from the climate focus of the Biden years. Recently, President Donald Trump hosted a group of coal miners who honored him as the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful, Clean Coal.”
Environmental Advocates Respond
Activists say favoring coal makes little sense at a time when renewables are cleaner, cheaper, and reliable.
Environmental advocates view the mercury standards shift differently. Gina McCarthy, the former EPA head, said: “By weakening pollution limits and monitoring for brain-damaging mercury and other pollutants, they are actively spiking any attempt to make America—and our children—healthy.”