The Trump administration invited power plants to apply for permission to follow a more relaxed version of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) put in place by former President Joe Biden, as well as other major clean-air rules. That Biden-era policy imposes stricter standards for mercury, lead, nickel and arsenic emissions. Exposure to those chemicals can create risks of developmental delays in children, as well as heart attacks and cancer.
The Environmental Protection Agency said in March that an obscure section of the Clean Air Act allows the president to "exempt stationary sources of air pollution from compliance with any standard or limitation" for up to two years if the technology needed to meet those rules isn't available and it's in the interest of national security.
That invitation went beyond simply making utilities aware of the opportunity. The EPA, in its own words, "requested" that any utilities impacted by MATS send in information about why they qualify for the exemption. The agency – which is responsible for protecting public and environmental health in the U.S. – also provided an email template for utilities to apply for relief from those regulations.
When Trump announced the exemption, he said that the Biden-era restrictions made it "impossible to do anything having to do, frankly, with energy."
Exemptions for facilities linked to nearly 50 utility companies were announced last week. Among them were the Tennessee Valley Authority's Shawnee Fossil Plant in Paducah, Big Rivers Electric Corporation's D.B. Wilson Station in Ohio County and East Kentucky Power Cooperative's H.L. Spurlock Station in Maysville and Sherman Cooper Station near Somerset.
TVA was granted exemptions for four plants, including Paducah, despite its plans to retire two of the Tennessee facilities – the Kingston Fossil Plant in Harriman and the Cumberland Fossil Plant in Cumberland City.
Bonnie Swinford, an organizing strategist for grassroots environmental group the Sierra Club, said in a statement after the exemptions were granted that TVA's "request to pollute more" was "preposterous."
"There is an abundance of affordable, readily-available technology that TVA can utilize – most of which is already installed at TVA's plants – to curb toxic emissions and protect families in the Valley. But, rather than using them to reduce emissions that harm the public, TVA instead chose to cut corners and endanger our community," Swinford said.
These exemptions come on the heels of a Trump executive order to boost coal production even as many utilities companies have leaned away from the fossil fuel in recent years.
Trump's April 8 proclamation for the regulatory relief said that Biden administration regulations place "severe burdens on coal-fired power plants and, through its indirect effects, on the viability of our Nation's coal sector." It also said that coal-fired electricity generation is essential for the reliability of U.S. power grids and that it helps keep electricity affordable for Americans.
The Trump administration also made efforts to exempt coal mining projects from environmental reviews, remove restrictions that stop companies from mining coal on federal lands and require the Energy Department to provide funds to support developing coal technologies.
The dominant fuel for U.S. energy is natural gas, which overtook coal several years ago. Coal generated just 15% of U.S. electricity in 2024, a figure that's been on the decline for more than a decade. Also, last year, wind and solar energy outpaced coal for the first time.
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