WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is moving to rewrite Obama-era rules limiting water pollution from coal-fired power plants.
FILE – In this April 13, 2017 file photo Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt, left, shakes hands with coal miners during a visit to Consol Pennsylvania Coal Company’s Harvey Mine in Sycamore, Pa.
The Trump administration wants to trash Obama-era rules to limit water pollution from coal-fired power plants.
Administrator Scott Pruitt sent a letter to a coalition of energy companies that lobbied against the 2015 water pollution rule.
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, sent a letter announcing his decision to a coalition of energy companies that lobbied against the 2015 water pollution regulations.
The rule would have required utilities by next year to cut the amounts of toxic heavy metals in the wastewater piped from their plants into rivers and lakes often used as sources of drinking water.
Arsenic, lead and mercury and other potentially harmful contaminates leach from massive pits of waterlogged ash left behind after burning coal to generate electricity.
The Utility Water Act Group petitioned Pruitt last month to reverse course on the regulations, which they claim would result in plant closures and job losses.
Pruitt responded Wednesday, saying he would delay compliance with the rule while EPA reconsiders the restrictions.
Trump has pledged to reverse decades of decline in coal-mining jobs and has questioned the consensus of climate scientists that man-made carbon emissions are to blame for global warming.