Politics
Trump Undermines Mercury Curbs in Move That Could End Mandate
- Obama-era pollution controls are not ‘appropriate,’ EPA says
- EPA argues its approach reflects ‘honest accounting’ of costs
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The Trump administration on Thursday attacked the legal basis of requirements to capture mercury and other heavy metal pollution from power plants, setting the stage for a court to potentially toss out the mandates altogether.
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a “supplemental finding” that concludes those Obama-era mercury pollution controls are too costly to justify and no longer “appropriate and necessary,” years after utilities complied with the requirements by installing scrubbers on coal-fired power plants.