Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed today to repeal the agency’s 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule. The 2024 rule modified an earlier 2012 rule. In response, America’s Power president and CEO Michelle Bloodworth released the following statement:
“America’s Power commends EPA for proposing to repeal the 2024 MATS rule. Utilities have already invested more than $2.5 billion to comply with the 2012 rule. The repeal will avoid unnecessarily spending another $1 billion that would be passed on to electricity consumers, and the repeal will remove a potential threat to the reliability of the electricity grid. We also thank President Trump for taking bold steps to improve the reliability of the grid.
“MATS is one of six EPA rules that were designed by the Biden Administration to shut down the nation’s coal power plants, even though the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy, electricity experts, grid officials, state utility commissioners, data center developers, and many others continue to stress that we need more, not fewer, power plants.
“It is worth noting that utilities have invested more than $30 billion in air pollution control technologies since 2010. These investments ensure that air quality is protected without more rules that force unnecessary expenditures at a time when electricity prices are already increasing.”