TRUMP’S EPA GUTTING PUBLIC HEALTH & CLIMATE PROTECTIONS TO PROP UP ANTIQUATED POWER PLANTS

PHILADELPHIA, PA (June 13, 2025) –  This week, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced proposals to repeal two rules that protect Americans’ health and future prosperity: the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) which protect American families from being sickened by mercury, arsenic, and other poisonous heavy metals, and the 111 Power Plant rule that limits climate pollution from power plants.

The MATS, adopted in 2012, reduced the amount of toxic air pollution that coal- and oil-fired power plants may emit. These standards have successfully reduced by 85% heavy metal emissions, including mercury, which is a neurotoxin that can cause life-long brain injuries to infants and children. Power plants now expose communities to less arsenic and other heavy metals — pollutants linked to cancer, birth defects, and cardiovascular disease. The MATS are designed to be updated every 8 years to keep up with technological advances, and coal-fired power plants are still the largest American source of toxic metal pollution. Some of these airborne microscopic metal particles are inhaled, and may be small enough to travel through a person’s lungs into their bloodstream. Much of this pollution falls from the air onto homes and soil, or contaminates water bodies. Responding to the public need and technological advancement, EPA strengthened the MATS emission limits in 2024. Now Trump’s EPA is gutting those protections in an apparent attempt to prevent the modernization of American energy infrastructure in favor of propping up antiquated coal plants.

EPA finalized the Power Plants Rule last year to require coal- and gas-burning power plants to control 90% of their climate pollution. Once implemented, this Rule, along with related regulations and federal clean energy investments, was anticipated to prevent 30,000 premature deaths and save $275 billion per year. Climate heating is already causing Americans to suffer from more frequent severe storms and heat waves, food and water insecurity, and increased populations of disease-bearing insects like ticks. Yet Trump’s administration is focused on eliminating climate protections like the Power Plants Rule and withdrawing investments in renewable technologies. As a result, Trump may be ceding future energy leadership to other nations such as China, which has already secured the vast majority of the current global market in solar panel production. 

Alex Bomstein, Clean Air Council Executive Director, issued the following statement:

“By rolling back critical safeguards, EPA is prioritizing Trump’s polluters-first agenda over the health of American families suffering from developmental damage, cancer, and cardiovascular illness caused by needless heavy metal pollution. EPA Administrator’s Zeldin’s claim that promoting coal plants will lead to American ‘energy dominance’ is akin to insisting that we can lead the way in transportation by bolstering manufacturing of horse-drawn carriages or in communication technology by promoting production of corded telephones. We should instead be at the forefront of the global renewable energy revolution that vastly reduces harmful pollution and protects our health.”