The Trump administration moved Wednesday to erase limits on greenhouse gases from power plants and to weaken restrictions on their other hazardous emissions, including mercury, arsenic and lead.
Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, hailed a “historic day” and said the proposed changes would unshackle the coal, oil and gas industries from “expensive, unreasonable and burdensome regulations” imposed by the Biden administration.
Together, the moves mark a major blow to efforts to tackle climate change and to reduce threats to public health. The power sector is the country’s second largest source of pollution that is heating the planet, behind transportation. The Trump administration is pursuing an aggressive agenda to bolster the production and use of fossil fuels, while also scrapping policies that reduce planet-warming emissions.
“EPA is helping pave the way for American energy dominance, because energy development underpins economic development, which in turn strengthens national security. And, most importantly, the American public voted for it last November,” Zeldin said at a news conference at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.
He labeled efforts to fight climate change a “cult” and said the pollution limits written by the Biden administration were designed “to destroy industries that didn’t align with their narrow-minded climate change zealotry.”
Mercury emissions are a particular hazard from power plants that burn coal and oil. Those plants account for 44% of all mercury emissions in the United States, according to the EPA. Once in the atmosphere, mercury converts into methylmercury, which can accumulate in fish and other food. Exposure can cause serious neurological damage in developing fetuses and children, and has been associated with respiratory ailments and heart disease in adults.
“The key rationale Zeldin is using to justify the dismantling of our nation’s protections from power plant pollution is absolutely illogical and indefensible,” said Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator under President Barack Obama who also served as former President Joe Biden’s domestic climate policy adviser.
“By giving a green light to more pollution, his legacy will forever be someone who does the bidding of the fossil fuel industry at the expense of our health,” she said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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