The Environmental Protection Agency plans to weaken a regulation of the BIDen era for which power plants had to be polluted, including the emissions of Kwik, a neurotoxin that hinders brain development, according to a document from the internal agencies.
Lee Zeldin, the EPA manager, intends to announce the proposed changes within a few days, according to two people who have been informed about the plans of the agency. Mr. Zeldin will also release a separate proposal to Eliminate limits of greenhouse gases from power plantsAccording to the people who spoke about the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss agency plans.
Together, the changes represent a rejection of the efforts that the Biden administration has made to tackle climate change and to tackle the disproportionate levels of air pollution that confronts communities in the vicinity of power plants and other industrial locations. Once completed, probably at the end of this year, both rules are expected to take on legal challenges.
The movements are part of a broad strategy through the Trump administration to expand the use of fossil fuels, the combustion of which is dangerously heating the planet. President Trump has made various recent steps to try to stimulate the use of coalThe dirtiest of the fossil fuels.
An EPA spokeswoman would not confirm the details of both regulations or if they were made public. But Mr. Zeldin said in a statement that he “closes up against the closing of clean, affordable and reliable energy for American families.”
“EPA must strive for a common regulation to provide the Great American Comeback with, do not continue on the path of destruction and poverty of the last government,” he said.
Mr. Zeldin’s plan for mercury and other toxic substances, which were viewed by the New York Times, said that the Biden administration was “incorrectly focused on coal-fired power plants” when it limited the pollution levels in 2024.
According to the document, the new rule would release the emission limits for toxic substances such as lead, nickel and arsenic by 67 percent. For some coal plants, the proposed rule weakens the mercury limits by 70 percent. It also withdraws a requirement that all plants constantly follow the outlet of their chimneys.
The changes would reverse the most strict requirements imposed by the Biden administration, which intended to curb dangerous toxins and at the same time encourage the transition Away from coal-burning power plants and to cleaner energy sources such as solar and wind.
When coal is burned, the mercury releases that land, oceans and streams can infect. According to the EPA, coal -fired power plants account for 44 percent of all mercury emissions in the United States
Once in the atmosphere, mercury missions are converted into a form that is known as a methylkwik that can gather in fish and other food. Can cause exposure serious neurological damage Developing fetuses and children, and is associated with breathing disorders and heart disorders in adults.
“The brains of children are developing at a very fast pace, and Mercury in their bodies can seriously influence their development,” said Matthew Davis, a former EPA officer whose research supported by the country First lines that reduce mercury missions from coal -fired power stations During the Obama government.
The federal government has for the first time cracked on mercury from power plants in 2011 under President Barack Obama. That regulation was Rolled back in the first Trump administration But reinforced under the BIDEN administration. In October, the Supreme Court denied a request of 23 Republican States and a handful of coal companies to block the enforcement of policy.
In April also the Trump administration Dozens of exemptions from coal -fired power plants granted From limits for mercury and other air pollutants. Mr. Davis, currently vice -president of federal policy at the League of Conservation voters, an environmental group, called that a “Get Out of Jail Free Card” for polluters.
“This administration wants to take a scrap ball to our health protection and they do not care about the health of future generations whose developing brains are damaged by this very toxic polluting substance,” he said.
The proposed rule that weakens the mercury standards is expected to be accompanied by a separate plan to remove all restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants.
The energy sector was the second largest source of greenhouse gases, behind transport, according to the most recent data available on the EPA website. Worldwide, power plants account for around 30 percent of the pollution that stimulates climate change.
But according to a concept of that rule that is also assessed by the New York Times, Mr. Zeldin is planning that the emissions of the American power plants claim Do not contribute “considerably” to climate change.
He will do this by claiming that emissions of American fossil fuel -fired power plants only represented 3 percent of global greenhouse gases in 2022, compared to 5.5 percent in 2005.
But analysts said the Trump administration compares apples with oranges. The power plants of America were Responsible for around 25 percent of greenhouse gas emissions generated in this country in 2022. They emit About 1.5 billion tonnes of emissions in 2023What is more than the total greenhouse gas emissions produced by most countries.
Laura Kate Bender, an assistant -President at the American Lung Association, called the couple withdrawal “a huge hit” in the fight against climate change and air pollution.
“All in all, these rules mean more pollution that could have been prevented for the communities that live around the plants and that will breathe in more harmful emissions that could have been prevented,” she said.
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