Mercury is bad, so this wasn't good

 

(Click on this to view it larger, it's a good graphic image.)

I noted this back in February, and after I put the link to the article in this post, I'll see if there is any current status update.

To review, mercury in the environment is really bad. It's toxic at very low levels, and it makes a neurotoxin when methylated. It gets into the aquatic food chain, so higher level predators also known as game fish concentrate it in their tissues.  Mercury is good for a lot of things, but being in the environment is not one of them.

Power Plants Will Be Allowed to Release More Than Twice As Much Mercury Into the Air

"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.

The repeal also relaxes limits on emissions of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and nickel from coal-burning power plants."

OK, so is there an update?

In fact, a couple of them.

In March: 

Health, environmental groups sue EPA for rollback of mercury rule

And in early August:

Congress Divided Over Hazardous Air Pollutant Standards

From the latter:

"Congress has taken an active interest in recent EPA rulemaking related to the regulatory impact of HAPs standards. The stakes are high: the Trump administration's rollback of the 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule will increase mercury and non-mercury heavy metal emissions while producing hundreds of millions of dollars in compliance cost savings for the power industry, according to EPA's own analysis. By contrast, EPA projected no effect on retail electricity prices from the repeal."

So, more emissions, more profits for the companies, no net savings for the public.

Also from the article:

"On the other side, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Fair Air Enforcement Act of 2025, which would repeal citizen suit provisions of the Clean Air Act with conforming amendments to Section 112."

So, as I said, mercury is bad.

So are Republicans.