EPA moves to restore rule on mercury from power plants
BY DREW COSTLEY
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is reaffirming the basis for a rule that requires “significant reductions” in mercury and other harmful pollutants from power plants. The EPA’s announcement Friday reverses a move late in former President Donald Trump’s administration to roll back emissions standards. The EPA said it found it “appropriate and necessary” to regulate emissions of toxic air pollution under the Clean Air Act. Coal-fired power plants are the largest single manmade source of mercury pollutants, which enter the food chain through fish and other items that people consume. The EPA’s finding puts back into place air quality protections enacted when President Barack Obama was in office.
