The Trump administration on Thursday proposed rolling back water pollution limits for coal-fired power plants, a move officials said was necessary to bolster the power grid and advance artificial intelligence data centers.
The draft rule would relax pollution requirements for combustion residual leachate, a technical term for wastewater containing arsenic, mercury and other toxic pollutants found in coal ash, which is the byproduct of burning coal for fuel.
Under the Biden administration, EPA had required coal plant operators to clean up that waste stream through a rule projected to prevent hundreds of millions of pounds of pollutants from entering the nation’s waters. The Trump administration has now determined that those requirements were unfeasible for the coal industry and untenable amid increased demand for electricity, EPA officials said.
“The AI and data center revolution is creating an electricity and baseload power demand that cannot be met under the overly restrictive policies of past administrations,” Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a news release. “The Trump EPA will continue doing its part to address these burdensome regulations on the coal-fired power plant sector that hold American communities back from the new opportunities presented by this new 21st century energy reality.”
