By Tim McLaughlin
(Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration intends to overturn pollution rules aimed at reducing soot emissions from U.S. coal-fired power plants in a move intended to help keep some of the nation’s dirtiest plants operational, according to people familiar with the matter.
Soot particles can wreak havoc on human health because they’re small enough to penetrate the bloodstream and brain.
The plan aligns with Trump’s January 20 executive orders that directed the Environmental Protection Agency to review measures affecting energy reliability and declared a national energy emergency to enhance government powers to boost fossil fuel and electricity production and distribution.
The White House was not immediately available for comment.
Among the targets is a 2024 Biden-era rule that lowered coal plant particulate matter emissions limits by nearly 70%, according to three people briefed on the matter.
Former President Joe Biden’s EPA had said it believed the tougher standard was reasonable because 91% of existing coal plants were already meeting it, federal regulatory filings show.
The Trump administration has said it hopes to keep existing coal plants running, and potentially restart ones that have been shuttered, in order to help meet an expected surge in nationwide power demand in coming years.
The EPA did not return messages seeking comment.
BIGGEST EMITTERS BENEFIT
There are about 200 coal plants left in the U.S., generating roughly 16% of the country’s electricity.
The country’s dirtiest coal plants would be among the biggest beneficiaries from a rollback of the soot limits. They include the Colstrip power plant in Montana, which the EPA says is the nation’s only coal plant without modern pollution controls for particulate matter.
Talen Energy, the operator of the plant and a minority owner, had joined more than 20 states in a pending legal challenge to Biden’s stricter rules in the Washington D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Last month, Trump’s EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin asked the court to postpone oral arguments scheduled for March 27 to allow the agency’s new leadership to review the underlying rule, according to court filings.
“EPA intends to closely review the 2024 rule. And the prior positions taken by the agency with respect to the 2024 rule may not necessarily reflect its ultimate conclusions after that review is complete,” lawyers for the agency said in a February 13 motion filed with the court.
Talen did not return a message seeking comment.
Complying with Biden’s more restrictive limits would cost the Colstrip plant’s owners $350 million to $665 million, according to estimates disclosed by NorthWestern Energy Group Inc.
NorthWestern will own a majority of Colstrip at the end of this year after agreeing to take over the ownership interests of Avista Corp and Puget Sound Energy.
The utility plans to use the 1,500-megawatt plant, which ran at about 80% capacity last year, to feed electricity to Montana data centers and a 3,000-megawatt, 415-mile transmission line between the town of Colstrip and Bismark, North Dakota.
NorthWestern did not return a message seeking comment.
The plant has a history of exceeding even the lower federal limits for particulate matter. In 2018, for example, the plant was shut down for more than two months after its soot pollution veered out of control, EPA disclosures show.
Talen Energy agreed to pay a $450,000 fine to settle those air quality violations.
The Biden-era limits, barring a move by the Trump administration, would require compliance as early as 2027.
(Reporting By Tim McLaughlin; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Nia Williams)
