Power Plants Will Be Allowed to Release More Than Twice As Much Mercury Into the Air
February 20, 2026 | Source: Eos | by Grace van Deelen
At a 20 February event in Kentucky, the Trump administration announced a final action to loosen pollution restrictions for coal-burning power plants, including limits on emissions of mercury, a hazardous neurotoxin.
The move was originally put forward in June, alongside a proposal to repeal federal limits on power plant carbon emissions.
The new rollback eliminates parts of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) finalized under the Biden administration. The 2024 updates strengthened limits on mercury and other hazardous air pollutant emissions from coal-burning power plants.
As a result of the repeal, coal-burning power plants will be allowed to emit more than twice as much mercury as they currently do. Specifically, they will no longer need to adhere to the limit of 1.2 pounds of mercury per trillion British thermal units of heat input (lb/TBtu) and instead must comply with the previous mercury release limit (set during the Obama administration in 2012) of 4.0 lb/TBtu.