FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2026
CONTACT:
Aaron Bharucha, Public Relations Associate
(509) 429-1699 and epn-press@environmentalprotectionnetwork.org
Trump EPA Revokes Critical Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), Putting Vulnerable Americans at Risk
Repealing the rule will allow hundreds of facilities across 45 states to avoid meeting critical safety standards—jeopardizing public health, degrading ecosystems, and disproportionately harming children, pregnant people, and communities already overburdened by pollution.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump EPA has repealed the updated Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), a critical safeguard that limits mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants. The prior rule, issued in 2024, strengthened protections against mercury, arsenic, chromium, and other toxic metals that contribute to cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory illness, and premature death.
“In yet another blow that devalues human life, the Trump EPA is siding with polluters. Repealing the updated MATS rule is a step backward for public health and environmental justice,” said Ellen Kurlansky, former Air Policy Analyst and Advisor in the EPA Office of Air and Radiation. “Mercury and other toxic air pollutants don’t just disappear—they accumulate in our communities, our food, and our children. Rolling back these protections puts the most vulnerable Americans—especially children, pregnant people, and overburdened communities—at serious risk and undermines decades of progress in cleaning the air we breathe.”
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that causes irreversible harm to fetal and infant brain development, leading to learning disabilities, developmental delays, and lifelong health impacts. These risks are compounded in communities located near high-emitting plants—often low-income communities and communities of color.
Before MATS was first implemented in 2012, coal plants emitted roughly 29 tons of mercury annually. By 2021, emissions had fallen by nearly 90 percent. Rescinding the updated rule will halt further progress that is technologically achievable at reasonable costs, allowing hundreds of facilities across 45 states to avoid strengthened compliance obligations—jeopardizing public health, degrading ecosystems, and disproportionately harming communities already overburdened by pollution.
This action marks the latest step in a wholesale retreat from protecting people from mercury and other toxic air pollution. It is also the latest example of a widespread and deliberate shift away from science-based decision-making and toward political control of environmental policy.
In December, the Trump EPA issued a rule to delay deadlines for more stringent wastewater treatment standards for coal-fired power plants. The updated standards would have reduced the amount of toxic wastewater containing mercury and other toxic pollutants that coal plants are allowed to dump directly into U.S. waterways.
The scientific foundation for rules like MATS depends on independent research conducted by EPA’s soon-to-be-shuttered Office of Research and Development (ORD). According to an internal EPA email reported by E&E News, the agency “is moving forward to close the Office of Research and Development and reassign remaining employees to EPA offices where their expertise will directly support statutory and mission-essential functions.”
Today’s announcement comes after Trump EPA has decided to stop counting the public health benefits of reducing deadly air pollutants, including the prevention of asthma attacks and premature deaths, when writing and repealing clean-air rules. EPA’s decision to ignore prevented deaths is part of a pattern of ignoring or downplaying health effects in the rulemaking process, including in its rulemaking on effluent guidelines for coal-fired power plants.
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