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| Dear Friend, |
| Everyone has a right to breathe clean air, but Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is abandoning its duty to protect the public from air pollution. |
| Trump’s EPA just proposed to claw back strengthened protections to one of our most popular and effective air pollution rules. The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) were the first national limits on toxic air pollution from coal- and oil-fired power plants. They reduced emissions by over 85% and delivered crucial public health benefits nationwide. EPA made the MATS stronger in 2024. |
| These strengthened protections, by the EPA’s own calculation, would prevent at least $300 million in a ten-year period in health-related costs – from fewer hospital visits, missed workdays, and premature deaths. |
| There’s a comment period open now on the proposal to weaken this rule, and we need your help. Send a letter today urging the EPA to keep MATS in place. |
| Despite the success of these standards, coal-fired power plants remain the largest domestic source of many toxic metals, like mercury. These metals are emitted by coal plants and fall to the ground and enter waterways, where mercury accumulates in fish and threatens human health. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that harms brain development in infants and children. Other heavy metals power plants release are linked to cancer, cardiovascular disease, and birth defects. |
| The health benefits of these standards are clear, and many power plants already installed technology to meet them. Weakening these protections now serves no public interest and only rewards polluters at the expense of public health. This is the latest attack in the Trump administration’s crusade against clean air protections. The EPA invited corporations to email requests for exemptions from clean air standards like MATS. Corporations were told that they could cite “national security” or “lack of available technology” as justification. This is another example of the Trump administration going around our laws to benefit polluters. |
| Earthjustice is fighting to stop this. Our attorneys and policy advocates are working hard to keep our air safe to breathe by engaging in timely lawsuits and advocating on the ground for protective policies that clean up our air. Now it’s your turn: submit public comments to the EPA to protect the clean air standards they are trying to dismantle. |
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Sincerely,
Nicholas Morales
Senior Attorney |
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| Photo Credits: Emissions from a stack at the Mitchell Power Plant, a coal powered plant, in Moundsville, West Virginia. (Lauren Petracca for Earthjustice) |
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