Trump's ERA rolls back rules on mercury emissions from power plants

[Wind Blowing Pollution]
DWalker44/E+ via Getty Images

The Environmental Protection Agency this week rescinded regulations limiting mercury and other hazardous toxins from power plants, citing the need to boost baseload energy at a time when demand for power is soaring.

The move is President Trump's latest effort to lift the U.S. coal sector [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-20/trump-eases-mercury-rules-for-power-plants-in-bid-to-boost-coal], including earmarking more than $500M to help upgrade existing plants, using emergency powers to keep older facilities from retiring, and allowing coal plants to access the Energy Department's loan program, which has hundreds of billions of dollars in financing authority.

In 2024, the Biden administration finalized updates to the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards for coal-fired plants that would have cut allowable mercury pollution from coal plants by 70% and imposed a 67% reduction in emissions of nickel, arsenic, lead, and other toxic metals.

On Friday, the EPA announced [https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-continues-reverse-democrats-war-beautiful-clean-coal-finalizes-repeal-costly] it has repealed Biden's updated MATs, reverting compliance back to 2012 standards, which it said would save Americans $670M through 2037 in the form of lower costs for transportation, heating, utilities, farming, and manufacturing.

Environmental groups have said that weakening standards for mercury and other air toxics will lead to higher long-term health-related costs.

Coal- and oil-fired power plants also will no longer have to comply with a 2027 deadline set under Biden to install technology on smokestacks for continuous monitoring of soot, and a stricter mercury emissions standard for certain coal plants, finalized in 2024, also is being replaced with the original 2012 standard.

"The Biden-Harris administration's anti-coal regulations sought to regulate out of existence this vital sector of our energy economy," EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said. "The Trump EPA knows that we can grow the economy, enhance baseload power, and protect human health and the environment all at the same time."

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