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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to reverse its 2012 finding that it is “appropriate and necessary” to regulate mercury emissions from coal fired power plants, a step that could unravel protections against one of the most toxic substances on earth, according to IU McKinney Law Professor of Practice Janet McCabe.

In a February 3 commentary, “EPA Takes a Toxic Turn by Baking Away from Mercury Regulation” in Jurist, Professor McCabe outlines the dangers of mercury and how current rules developed over time, beginning with the 1970 Clean Air Act to protect Americans’ health and the environment from the adverse impacts of air pollution, and more recent success in reducing U.S. mercury emissions through the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards—reductions the Trump administration may reverse.

Although courts have backed the Obama-era rules regarding mercury regulations, reconsidering MATS was high on the incoming Trump administration’s to do list. The agency’s December 2018 proposal was expected long before it was announced in December 2018, according to Professor McCabe.

“There is much more to say, and people will say it all during the public comment period, which will start once the proposal is published in the Federal Register. In the meantime, mercury emissions from US coal plants have gone down 85% between 2006 and 2016, and mercury levels in water and fish have also decreased. That sounds like a successful program to me,” she writes.

Professor McCabe was closely involved in the development of MATS as Acting Administrator for the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation from 2009-2017. In addition to teaching at IU McKinney, she is Director for Policy and Implementation at the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute. She is also a Senior Law Fellow at the Environmental law and Policy Center.