Explainer: Understanding the New Power Plant Pollution Rules in the US

The US Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to repeal all “greenhouse gas” emissions standards for the power sector under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act and amend the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, moves that some legal experts have described as “illegal” and a threat to the health of millions of Americans.

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Earlier this month, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put forward a proposal to repeal all greenhouse gas emissions standards for the power sector, dealing another blow to climate action. 

The new rules target pollution control standards for coal and gas power plants established by the EPA under the Clean Air Act in 2015 as well as Biden-era regulations to phase out emissions from electricity-producing fossil fuel plants.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin earlier this month said that greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants “do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution,” when in reality, they are a major contributor and a huge threat to human health. Carbon dioxide (CO2), a by-product of burning fossil fuels, is the principal anthropogenic greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

“This is the scientific equivalent to saying that smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer,” climate scientist Zeke Hausfather said in response to Zeldin’s claim. 

The health benefits associated with reducing long-term exposure to air pollution are significant, as exposure to toxic pollutants has been found to cause certain types of cancer, such as lymphoma, leukemia, breast cancer and liver cancer and even lead to premature death. Approximately 7 million people die each year from air pollution globally. 

Zeldin and Energy Secretary Chris Wright anticipated the administration’s move when they publicly attacked the EPA’s Endangerment Finding earlier this year, threatening to end it.

“The 2009 Endangerment finding has had an enormously negative impact on the lives of the American people for more than 15 years. It’s past time the United States ensures the basis for issuing environmental regulations follows the science and betters human lives,” said Wright.  

Issued in 2009, the finding revealed that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere can endanger both public health and the environment for current and future generations. The proposed rules effectively dismiss these findings, enabling weaker power plant regulations by overturning the original restriction. 

Mercury

The new proposal also targets the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which former president Joe Biden toughened last year. The new rule would cut emissions limits for toxic substances like nickel, arsenic, and lead by two-thirds and reduce regulation on mercury emissions by 70%.

44% of all manmade mercury emissions come from burning coal for electricity. Power plants that burn coal to create electricity are the largest source of mercury emissions in the US, though activities involving the burning of electronic waste such as phones and batteries, as well as steel production, also generate mercury emissions. 

Overexposure to mercury is linked to health issues such as speech impairment, hearing, walking or muscle weakness, insomnia, and changes in nerve responses, possibly even leading to memory loss. Exposure to methylmercury, a highly toxic form of mercury that is formed by bacteria in water and soil, can adversely affect unborn infants’ growing brains and nervous systems, children exposed to methylmercury while they are in the womb can have impacts on their cognitive thinking, memory, attention, language, fine motor skills, and visual spatial skills.

‘Legally Baseless’

The Trump administration described the new rules as necessary to restore American energy dominance by removing undue burdens on coal-fired plants, and as a way to accomplish the EPA’s “core mission” of protecting human health and the environment. But critics warn that these rollbacks will have serious repercussions on the health of millions of Americans.

“It would lead to the biggest pollution increases in decades and is a blatant give-away to polluters,” more than 200 health experts wrote in the letter published after the EPA’s announcement. They added that any attempt to reverse the endangerment finding would be “legally baseless”, and would harm communities already suffering from the impacts of climate changes, like extreme heat.  

According to the Sierra Club, a grassroots environmental organization, rolling back the EPA’s standards limiting emissions from gas- and coal-fired power plants would release seven times as much CO2 as they currently put into the atmosphere. “This repeal means more climate disasters, more heart attacks, more asthma attacks, more birth defects, more premature deaths,” said Patrick Drupp, the Sierra Club Climate Policy Director. 

Howard Frumkin, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health, warned that the rollbacks will have “major, direct consequences” for the health and well-being of Americans, adding that “Americans will die needlessly.”

“They would lead to more illnesses, which in turn would mean more days missing school and work, more visits to doctors and hospitalizations, and increased medical costs,” said Vickie Patton, General Counsel of Environmental Defense Fund.

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