Freedom! Shitstain Gives Coal Power Plants Another Two Years Before They Have To Deal With Mercury Pollution
Included in the Trump administration’s order last week to boost the coal industry was a two-year exemption to a rule that would have forced some of the nation’s most polluting power plants to reduce emissions of mercury and other air toxics. The ramifications of this exemption are beginning to sink in for people across the country who saw the mercury rule, updated and enhanced last year by the Biden administration, as a crucial part of reducing the harm of these power plants.
The Environmental Protection Agency published a list of 47 plant owners and more than 60 plants that now have additional time to meet mercury and air toxics standards (MATS) that were set to become more stringent in 2027. The actions are part of a broader agenda in which the Trump administration aims to use executive orders to cut environmental regulations and increase electricity generation, mainly from fossil fuels.
“The Trump administration has created an illegal special exemption by which polluters can go to the president and request a ‘get out of jail free’ card when it comes to the Clean Air Act,” said Howard Learner, CEO and executive director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center, a Chicago-based advocacy group that works throughout the Midwest. “That’s legally irresponsible; it’s bad policy, and it will really harm people as a result of more pollution.”
The exempted plants are in 23 states and include some of the country’s leading polluters, such as the James H. Miller plant in Alabama, owned by Southern Co., and the Labadie plant in Missouri, owned by Ameren Corp. Many of the plants are old, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Shawnee plant in Kentucky, whose oldest generating unit began operating in 1953. A few are relatively new, such as the Dry Fork Station in Wyoming, which opened in 2011 and is owned by Basin Electric Power Cooperative.
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16042025/power-plants-exempted-from-federal-mercury-limits/