Last week, President Donald Trump granted exemptions from some pollution safeguards to dozens of coal and oil-burning power plants across the country, including four in Kentucky.
The Trump administration invited power plants to apply for permission to comply with a more relaxed version of former President Joe Biden’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), as well as other major clean-air regulations.
The Biden-era policy sets higher standards for mercury, lead, nickel, and arsenic emissions. Exposure to these chemicals can cause developmental delays in children, as well as heart attacks and cancer.
In March, the Environmental Protection Agency stated that an obscure section of the Clean Air Act allows the president to “exempt stationary sources of air pollution from compliance with any standard or limitation” for up to two years if the technology required to meet those rules is not available and it is in the interest of national security.
The invitation went beyond simply informing utilities about the opportunity. The EPA, in its own words, “requested” that any utilities affected by MATS submit information about why they qualify for the exemption.
The agency, which is in charge of protecting public and environmental health in the United States, also provided an email template for utilities to apply for exemptions from the regulations.
When Trump announced the exemption, he stated that Biden’s restrictions made it “impossible to do anything having to do, frankly, with energy.”
Exemptions for facilities associated with nearly 50 utility companies were announced last week. They included the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Shawnee Fossil Plant in Paducah, Big Rivers Electric Corporation’s D.B. Wilson Station in Ohio County, East Kentucky Power Cooperative’s H.L. Spurlock Station in Maysville, and Sherman Cooper Station near Somerset.
TVA was granted exemptions for four plants, including Paducah, despite plans to close two Tennessee facilities: the Kingston Fossil Plant in Harriman and the Cumberland Fossil Plant in Cumberland City.
Bonnie Swinford, an organizing strategist for grassroots environmental organization the Sierra Club, said in a statement after the exemptions were granted that TVA’s “request to pollute more” was “preposterous.”
“There is an abundance of affordable, readily available technology that TVA can use, the majority of which is already installed at TVA’s plants, to reduce toxic emissions and protect Valley families. However, rather than using them to reduce harmful emissions, TVA chose to cut corners, endangering our community,” Swinford said.
These exemptions follow a Trump executive order to increase coal production, despite the fact that many utilities have shifted away from fossil fuels in recent years.
According to Trump’s April 8 proclamation for regulatory relief, Biden administration regulations place “severe burdens on coal-fired power plants and, through its indirect effects, on the viability of our Nation’s coal sector.” It also stated that coal-fired electricity generation is critical to the reliability of the United States’ power grids and helps keep electricity affordable for Americans.
The Trump administration also attempted to exempt coal mining projects from environmental reviews, lift restrictions that prevent companies from mining coal on federal lands, and require the Energy Department to provide funds to support the development of coal technologies.
Natural gas has surpassed coal as the primary energy source in the United States in recent years. Coal generated only 15% of US electricity in 2024, a figure that has been declining for more than a decade. Last year, wind and solar energy surpassed coal for the first time.
