EPA trims power-plant standards for mercury, other metals

"The Trump administration on Thursday weakened regulations on the release of mercury and other toxic metals from oil and coal-fired power plants," Lisa Friedman and Coral Davenport report for The New York Times. "The new Environmental Protection Agency rule does not eliminate restrictions on the release of mercury, a heavy metal linked to brain damage. Instead, it creates a new method of calculating the costs and benefits of curbing mercury pollution that environmental lawyers said would fundamentally undermine the legal underpinnings of controls on mercury and many other pollutants."

Friedman and Davenport write that the new method essentially makes pollution control look more expensive and less effective on paper, which could help justify loosening restrictions on pollutants that would be expensive for fossil-fuel companies to control.

"The proposed change is the latest in the Trump administration’s long-running effort to roll back environmental regulations and reduce regulatory burdens, particularly on the coal, oil and gas industries, they note. "Over the past few weeks as the nation struggled with the coronavirus, the administration has also rushed to loosen curbs on automobile tailpipe emissions, opted not to strengthen a regulation on industrial soot emissions and moved to drop the threat of punishment to companies that kill birds 'incidentally.'"

Environmental groups are suing EPA over a March 26 memo saying it wouldn't penalize companies that don't monitor their pollution output during the pandemic, Rebecca Beitsch notes for The Hill.