Strict standards for controlling pollutant emissions in the US have been relaxed so that they "do not put pressure on business." Now, power plants that run on coal and petroleum products are not required to monitor emissions of mercury, lead, and arsenic. This decision has outraged experts, as information about violations of limits will now simply not be available.
According to Bloomberg, this concerns changes to the Maximum Allowable Emissions Standards for Air Pollutants (MATS) for power plants, which were recently approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The history of restrictions and their cancellation
MATS was introduced in the United States back in 2012. The key requirement of this document is to oblige facilities to reduce emissions of mercury and other toxic substances, such as lead and arsenic. These elements are extremely harmful to health — they can cause cancer, heart attacks, and even developmental delays in children.
The administration of former US President Biden made these standards even stricter in 2024. Power plants were required to install equipment on their smokestacks by 2027 to continuously monitor particulate emissions.
However, the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump began to consider such standards overly burdensome for coal-fired power plants and repealed them.
Health simply “not considered”
Environmental communities and even former EPA staff have criticized such decisions. In their opinion, power plants will now have complete freedom in generating emissions.
“Americans will not be able to see when power plants violate pollution limits and release excess pollution that causes cancer,” said John Walke, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a former EPA employee.
The U.S. environmental agency justifies its decision by claiming savings of $670 million between 2028 and 2037. However, even this agency admitted that it did not consider the impact on human health from emissions of fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds at all.
In contrast, restrictions from Biden’s era were based precisely on calculations of public health and climate benefits, estimated at $300 million and $130 million respectively.
Stimulating the coal sector
Even before the 2024 version of MATS was revoked, the EPA encouraged fossil fuel power companies to apply for two-year exemptions from Biden’s rules. Seventy power plants received such exemptions.
Overall, the new administration is consistently supporting the country’s coal sector. As Bloomberg notes, the government has allocated more than half a billion dollars for the modernization of existing power plants and provided them access to a loan program from the Department of Energy.
In contrast, the new U.S. administration is creating unacceptable conditions for renewable energy. EcoPolitic previously reported that construction of large wind power plants had been blocked in the country. Earlier, the United States cancelled the project to build the largest solar power plant.
Також EPA оголошувало про намір to repeal the “Endangerment Finding”, which recognized greenhouse gases as harmful to people. It is also considered too burdensome for business, particularly for the automotive sector.
