Dozens of coal plants — including some run by the nation’s leading power producers — will be allowed to sidestep updated limits on toxic pollutants after President Donald Trump’s unprecedented decision to grant a compliance extension.
A roster posted on EPA’s website lists 47 power producers and almost 70 plants. They will get a two-year reprieve from regulations updated last spring to further cut the power sector’s emissions of mercury, a brain-damaging neurotoxin, and other hazardous air pollutants.
The Trump administration is meanwhile seeking to revisit — and possibly repeal — the updated limits.
The list includes the Colstrip Generating Plant, a Montana facility owned in part by NorthWestern Energy and Talen that ranks among the nation’s top polluting electricity providers. Others include facilities run by Southern Co., Entergy and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Also winning exemptions are plants operated by the East Kentucky Power Cooperative, North Dakota-based Basin Electric and other electric co-ops.
