In yet another reversal of a Trump-era action, the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it will resume enforcement of a rule that limits power plant emissions of mercury and other hazardous pollutants.
WASHINGTON —
The action is another example of the Biden administration reinstating environmental protections loosened under President Donald Trump. The EPA has announced a series of regulatory actions under Regan, including a plan to impose stronger limits on tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks and tighten restrictions on emissions of methane, a leading contributor to global warming.
The Trump administration gutted the mercury rule on power plants in 2020, saying the earlier rule amounted to regulatory overreach that imposed undue harm on the power sector. Andrew Wheeler, the former coal lobbyist who headed the EPA under Trump, said the 2020 action balanced the rule’s cost to utilities with public safety.
The Obama-era rule led to what electric utilities say was an $18 billion cleanup of mercury and other toxins from the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants.
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