President Trump relies on national security to delay mercury and air oxic standards – clean air / pollution

President Donald Trump's proclamation on April 8, 2025 extends the compliance period for the Mercury and Air toxics standards (MATS) of the EPA from July 8, 2027 to July 8, 2029, with national security concerns and lack of technological availability.

United States
Environment

Highlights

• President Donald Trump's proclamation on April 8, 2025 extends the compliance period for the Mercury and Air toxics standards (MATS) of the EPA from July 8, 2027 to July 8, 2029, with national security concerns and lack of technological availability.




• In March 2025, the US environmental authority (EPA) opened a short window for facilities to apply for the exceptions of the President in accordance with Clean Air ACT Section 112 (I) (4) for Mats and other national emission standards for dangerous air pollutants with a submission period of March 31, 2025.




• The Mats proclamation follows the first connection to President Trump's One Executive to promote domestic energy resources, with ongoing initiatives such as checking the mats rule, which may lead to long-term regulatory changes.

As part of a wider series of orders in relation to the coal industry, President Donald Trump gave a proclamation on April 8, 2025 entitled “Regulatory relief for certain inpatient sources to promote American energy”.

This Holland & Knight warning focuses on the Mercury and Air toxics standards (MATS) of President Trump, which extended the compliance period for updated requirements of the Mats rule of the US environmental protection authority (EPA) rule from the US environmental protection authority (EPA) by July 8, 2029.

background

Section 112 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) describes the authority of the EPA to grant national emission standards for dangerous air pollutants (neshaps). In 2012, the EPA spent the first such standards for fossil power plants that are generally known as Mats. Mats has been controversial since his acceptance, including a trip to the U.S.'s Supreme Court in 2015, where the court decided with 5: 4 that the EPA had unreasonably unspoken the costs at an early stage of the process.

In May 2024, the EPA completed the most important updates for MATS because the standards were originally exhibited, including changes in certain emission standards for coal -fired power plants. The original deadline for power plants that correspond to the updated standards was July 8, 2027, three years after the entry into force.

President Trump's Matten -Profoca

President Trump's Mats proclamation frees certain power plants of July 8, 2027, the compliance period for the updated standards. Although the typical compliance period for a Neshap is three years after the date of entry into force, the CAA enables the president to freed sources of compliance for up to two years, the potential for several extensions. In order to refer to the exception of the President in accordance with CaA section 112 (I) (4), the President must find that 1) The technology for the implementation of the EPA standard “not available” and 2) is that an exception “is in the national security interests of the United States”.

President Trump's proclamation expressly cited his authority in accordance with Caa Section 112 (I) (4) and contained various statements that are relevant for the couple of presidential regulations required for CAA:

• In terms of technological availability. The President's proclamation states that the technology for implementing the rule “does not exist in a commercial form” in order to implement and correspond to the rule by its period of 2027.




• Regarding national security. The President's proclamation states that the compliance period of 2027 would undermine national security, among other things, by risking the shutdown of coal-fired power plants, which in turn are violated “America susceptible to electricity needs, an increased dependency on foreign energy sources and possible disorders of our electricity and energy supply, especially in times of crises.”

In the proclamation it was found that it would apply to a certain list of inpatient sources that were identified in a “Appendix I” for the proclamation-and these sources freed for the entire two-year period after July 8, 2029. The CAA authorizes the president of passing additional extensions beyond the first two years and requires that the president must report the congress in terms of his original exception and any exception and any triggering and triggered any triggering.

The bigger picture

President Trump's Mats proclamation of April 8, 2025 is only the latest development in a long history that is still written.

The most immediate is the Mats proclamation after the establishment of a short window by EPA in March 2025, to submit inquiries from exceptions to President in accordance with Section 112 (I) (4) for the Mats rule and eight other Neshaps, including rules that the synthetic orchannh chemical manufacturing industry, sterilization facilities, RUB tire manufacturer, Loreconal, Lorecones and loreconous and lorine manufacturers and more Limeröcons and more concern. Facilities and affected sources have been instructed to send an e -mail with the corresponding emission standards or restrictions, the duration of the requested expansion and justification that supports your request with regard to technological availability and national security interests. The deadline for this short-lived email submission was March 31, 2025.

The Mats proclamation also exists against the background of the One Executive Order of President Trump, which “American Energy” has developed, which provides certain agencies “to” check measures “, which inappropriately burden the identification, development or use of domestic energy resources”. On March 12, 2025, the EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced different initiatives to To advance the guideline, including a review of the MATS rule. Complex CAA rules prepared that would probably apply to such an effort.

Trumps 2025 Executive Orders: Updates and Summaries

The Public Policy & Regulation Group from Holland & Knight monitors and actively checks the executive commands and other measures by President Trump. See a comprehensive tracking table with summary compositions of the executive order on our website.

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