Health, environmental groups sue EPA for rollback of mercury rule

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - A coalition of health and environmental groups on Monday sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for repealing federal standards for coal-fired power plants that limited mercury and other harmful air pollutants, saying that the rollbacks put children and vulnerable people at risk.

Here are some details:

• The coalition of groups, which includes Earthjustice, the American Lung Association, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the American Academy of Pediatrics, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

• In February, the Trump administration's EPA repealed the 2024 update by the Biden administration of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard, which would have reduced allowable mercury pollution from coal plants by 70%, emissions of nickel, arsenic, lead and other toxic metals by two-thirds and would have saved an estimated $420 million in health costs through 2037, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

• The administration last year also issued a two-year exemption from air quality standards for old coal-fired power plants that let some of the biggest emitting facilities off the hook. Since the exemptions were issued, the coalition said sulfur dioxide emissions rose 18% nationally and neurotoxic mercury emissions rose 9%.

• "This administration is not just rolling back rules, it is eliminating the monitoring infrastructure needed to know what is coming out of these smokestacks in the first place. It is allowing coal plants to spew out more neurotoxic mercury into our air and food supply, while simultaneously keeping the communities most at risk in the dark about how serious that threat is," the coalition said in a statement.