EPA Dismantles Protections for Mercury and Air Toxics From Power Plants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today finalized a repeal of the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) – a move that will allow coal- and oil-fired power plants to emit more brain-damaging mercury, other harmful heavy metals, and dangerous soot. Those emissions put the public at greater risk of heart and lung disease, cancer, and premature death.

EPA also eliminated a common-sense requirement that power plants install cost-effective systems to continuously monitor the amount of pollution they emit — depriving communities of a powerful tool for ensuring power plants comply with air pollution standards and provide real-time data on their emissions.

“Trump’s EPA is making an attack on public health with the repeal of the 2024 MATS,” said Earthjustice Attorney Nicholas Morales. “This unlawful repeal will result in higher levels of mercury, soot, and other hazardous pollution into our air and communities. With this move, the Trump administration is wiping out health protections critical for protecting children from toxins like mercury just to save the coal industry some money.”

The repeal of MATS follows a two-year exemption the Trump administration granted to some of the nation’s dirtiest power plants, many of which had demonstrated their ability to meet the updated 2024 standards. In June 2025, community and environmental groups represented by Earthjustice and other counsel sued the Trump administration over this unlawful decision. The exemptions, issued in April and July, allow 71 coal power plants to release more mercury, arsenic, and other heavy metals, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that tighter limits are achievable and would protect children, pregnant people, and people with chronic heart and lung disease from toxic air pollution.

Background on MATS

Before MATS was established in 2012, there were no federal limits on how much mercury and toxic air pollution coal and oil -fired powered plants could emit. The standards led to a 90% reduction in mercury emissions, 80% drop in other metals, and helped save up to 11,000 lives each year. In 2024, the EPA strengthened MATS, building on what has become one of its most effective air pollution rules.

EPA’s own analysis of the 2024 rule found:

• $33 million in annual health benefits

• Minimal impact on electricity reliability, with no expected retirements

• Only 33 plants required upgrades to meet non-mercury metal standards.

For many coal plants, the 2024 standards simply require tuning up existing pollution controls already in place, and most covered facilities had met or were on track to meet the tighter limits. By scrapping those stronger safeguards and reverting to outdated standards, EPA is giving a lifeline to some of the dirtiest power plants in the country at the expense of public health.

The following are reactions from our clients and the coalition

“This announcement really hits home for us here in the Houston area where one of the nation’s largest and dirtiest coal fired power plants remains fully operational,” says Jennifer Hadayia, executive director at Air Alliance Houston. “The danger of coal plants like W.A.Parish (owned by NRG) are not theoretical; they have real quantifiable harms on people’s quality of life and health. Repealing the rules that curtail coal plant pollution means that mercury, soot, arsenic, and other harmful substances will continue to be in our air at unhealthy levels. And for what reason? Most of the remaining coal plants in the U.S. were already on track to meet the stronger standards. This repeal is a dog whistle to a dying industry and won’t make anyone healthier. Those of us working to truly protect public health from the harms of air pollution will continue to push for stronger protections from coal pollution.”

“This rollback is one more example of the Trump administration putting fossil fuel interests ahead of the American people,” said Anne Havemann, deputy director at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “The 2024 MATS rule created meaningful gains in public health at minimal cost. That’s environmental protection at its best.”

“For decades, Montanans have breathed toxic pollution from the dirtiest power plant in the nation,” said Anne Hedges, executive director of the Montana Environmental Information Center. “The outdated, unreliable Colstrip plant has the highest rate of toxic air pollution of any similar coal plant in the nation. It is the only one of its kind that hasn’t installed modern pollution controls. People living downwind shouldn’t have to pay the price of this administration’s reckless disregard for human life through high medical bills and lower quality of life to treat health problems that are completely preventable. It’s heartless.”

“Repealing the 2024 MATS rule is the latest example of the Trump administration serving the fossil fuel industry instead of protecting public health. The excessive emissions of arsenic, mercury, and other toxic heavy metals cause the most harm to the people most in need of protection, including children, who are being exposed to these toxins during critical developmental windows,” said Lawrence Hafetz, legal director of Clean Air Council, headquartered in Pennsylvania, a state containing nine coal plants that would have been subject to improved standards.

“The Trump EPA’s decision to repeal the mercury standards is a direct attack on the health of Americans,” said Laurie Williams, Beyond Coal Campaign director of Sierra Club. “For years, these lifesaving safeguards have slashed the amount of toxic pollution coal plants dump in our air and water, keeping millions of Americans safe from heart attacks, asthma and premature deaths. Now, the president that promised to make Americans healthy again is deliberately weakening those protections and families will suffer preventable illness simply because he wants to give the coal industry another handout at the expense of our health. Americans deserve public health standards that are designed to protect people, not pad the profits of a dying industry that can’t compete with less expensive coal plants that rampantly pollute our air. But Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin have made their choice: help their buddies in the coal industry cut corners rather than prioritize the health and safety of our communities. The Sierra Club will fight this decision with everything we have to defend our communities from this dangerous and deadly rollback.”

“The coal industry is in decline, and dismantling clean air protections won’t bring it back,” says John Walke, senior attorney for NRDC. “It will only lead to more asthma attacks, more heart problems, and more premature deaths, especially in communities living in the shadow of coal plants. We have a right to breathe clean air, and we will fight for that right even if Trump’s EPA refuses to.”

“For over a decade, the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards have protected Americans from mercury and other dangerous pollutants emitted by coal plants, but now Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin are recklessly attacking these protections so their coal buddies can make a few more bucks,” said Sierra Club Climate Policy Director Patrick Drupp. “This is the complete opposite of making Americans healthy. By rolling back this commonsense, lifesaving protection, the Trump administration is making Americans sicker and unnecessarily exposing families and children to more dirty pollution that causes heart disease, cancer, and developmental disabilities. This is despicable and reckless, and we will continue to defend our communities from these health hazards caused by coal plants.”

“With so many of the nation’s coal plants concentrated in the Midwest, this decision sends an unmistakable signal that our communities are expendable,” said Brian Lynk, Environmental Law & Policy Center senior attorney. “Rolling back protections from toxic mercury pollution sacrifices public health to prop up a declining industry, even though it won’t change the fundamental economics driving coal’s decline. This administration is sticking its head in the sand while the rest of the world moves forward toward more affordable and less toxic energy sources.”

“This repeal is an unprecedented, unlawful, and unjustified reversal that flies in the face of congressionally mandated efforts to reduce hazardous air pollution from industrial facilities,” said Hayden Hashimoto, attorney at Clean Air Task Force. “EPA’s repeal puts polluters’ interests over public health by loosening the limits on emissions of air toxics from power plants, which the agency has previously recognized as the largest domestic emitter of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants. Allowing more emissions of air toxics puts Americans at greater risk for the benefit of a small number of particularly dirty coal plants.”

“Repealing these protections will allow coal plants to pour more mercury and toxic pollution into our air, which will then get into our water, food, and ultimately our children’s bodies. It’s a needless cruelty when modern pollution controls can provide greater safety,” said Surbhi Sarang, senior attorney at Environmental Defense Fund. “The Trump administration is willfully ignoring evidence that coal plants can reduce their pollution in readily available ways for reasonable cost – and American families will be the ones paying the price.”