EPA Dismantles Protections for Mercury and Air Toxics from Power Plants

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb. 20, 2026) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today finalized a repeal of the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) - a move that will allow coal- and oil-fired power plants to emit more brain-damaging mercury, other harmful heavy metals, and dangerous soot. Those emissions put the public at greater risk of heart and lung disease, cancer, and premature death. 

EPA also eliminated a common-sense requirement that power plants install cost-effective systems to continuously monitor the amount of pollution they emit -- depriving communities of a powerful tool for ensuring power plants comply with air pollution standards and provide real-time data on their emissions.  

The move comes as part of a larger Trump administration push to weaken or eliminate bedrock environmental and public health protections. The MATS rollback follows a two-year exemption the Trump administration granted to some of the nation’s dirtiest power plants, many of which had demonstrated their ability to meet the updated 2024 standards. The loosening of standards also comes despite overwhelming scientific evidence that tighter limits are achievable and would protect children and other vulnerable people  from toxic air pollution.

This rollback is also part of the administration’s broader effort to prop up aging coal plants, even as cheaper, cleaner alternatives like wind and solar dominate new energy development. For many coal plants, the 2024 standards simply require tuning up existing pollution controls, and most covered facilities had met or were on track to meet the tighter limits. By scrapping those stronger safeguards and reverting to outdated standards, EPA is giving a lifeline to some of the dirtiest power plants in the country at the expense of public health.

The following are reactions from the coalition: 

“Repealing these protections will allow coal plants to pour more mercury and toxic pollution into our air, which will then get into our water, food, and ultimately our children’s bodies. It’s a needless cruelty when modern pollution controls can provide greater safety,” said Surbhi Sarang, Senior Attorney at Environmental Defense Fund. “The Trump administration is willfully ignoring evidence that coal plants can reduce their pollution in readily available ways for reasonable cost – and American families will be the ones paying the price.” 

“The coal industry is in decline, and dismantling clean air protections won’t bring it back,” says John Walke, senior attorney for NRDC. “It will only lead to more asthma attacks, more heart problems, and more premature deaths, especially in communities living in the shadow of coal plants. We have a right to breathe clean air, and we will fight for that right even if Trump’s EPA refuses to.”

“For over a decade, the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards have protected Americans from mercury and other dangerous pollutants emitted by coal plants, but now Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin are recklessly attacking these protections so their coal buddies can make a few more bucks,” said Sierra Club Climate Policy Director Patrick Drupp. “This is the complete opposite of making Americans healthy. By rolling back this commonsense, lifesaving protection, the Trump administration is making Americans sicker and unnecessarily exposing families and children to more dirty pollution that causes heart disease, cancer, and developmental disabilities. This is despicable and reckless, and we will continue to defend our communities from these health hazards caused by coal plants.” 

“Trump’s EPA is making an attack on public health with the repeal of the 2024 MATS,” said Nicholas Morales, Earthjustice attorney. “This unlawful repeal will result in higher levels of mercury, soot, and other hazardous pollution into our air and communities. With this move, the Trump administration is wiping out health protections critical for protecting children from toxins like mercury just to save the coal industry some money.”  

“With so many of the nation’s coal plants concentrated in the Midwest, this decision sends an unmistakable signal that our communities are expendable,” said Brian Lynk, Environmental Law & Policy Center Senior Attorney. “Rolling back protections from toxic mercury pollution sacrifices public health to prop up a declining industry, even though it won’t change the fundamental economics driving coal’s decline. This administration is sticking its head in the sand while the rest of the world moves forward toward more affordable and less toxic energy sources.”

“This repeal is an unprecedented, unlawful, and unjustified reversal that flies in the face of congressionally mandated efforts to reduce hazardous air pollution from industrial facilities,” said Hayden Hashimoto, attorney at Clean Air Task Force. “EPA’s repeal puts polluters’ interests over public health by loosening the limits on emissions of air toxics from power plants, which the agency has previously recognized as the largest domestic emitter of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants. Allowing more emissions of air toxics puts Americans at greater risk for the benefit of a small number of particularly dirty coal plants.”