The Trump administration is closing in on completion of two top Clean Air Act priorities: repeal of stronger air toxics regulations for existing coal- and oil-fired power plants as well as emissions standards for hundreds of natural-gas-fueled electricity-generating facilities expected to be built in the future.
EPA shipped prepublication drafts of the two rules to the White House regulations shop for a routine review just before Christmas, according to a government tracking website. Both are set to be made final this month, court papers indicate.
One would scrap the tightened limits on mercury, a neurotoxin particularly dangerous to children, and other hazardous air pollutants issued two years ago during President Joe Biden’s term. That update reversed EPA’s decision during President Donald Trump’s first term that no significant changes were needed to what are formally known as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.
Under Biden, the strengthened regulations closed a loophole on mercury pollution for about 10 plants that burn a low-grade form of coal known as lignite. They also slashed a soot emissions rate for all coal-fired plants that serves as a regulatory stand-in for releases of arsenic, nickel and other hazardous metals.
