The Trump administration has announced sweeping measures to expand coal production on public lands. It intends to open 13.1 million acres of public land for coal leasing, significantly loosen the royalty rates that mining companies pay, and allocate large sums toward existing coal-fired power plants. A central component of the plan is to dismantle or weaken dozens of environmental regulations that restrict pollution from coal operations and power plants.
The Trump administration’s coal plan does not stop at opening millions of acres of public land or reducing royalties. It is paired with an unprecedented wave of environmental deregulation that collectively weakens protections for air, water, and climate. Rules that once limited carbon emissions from power plants, such as the Clean Power Plan and its successors, have been repealed or replaced with far weaker standards, allowing utilities to emit far more greenhouse gases at a time when global climate goals demand steep reductions.
Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, designed to curb neurotoxic pollution that damages brain development and causes respiratory illness, have been scaled back, with nearly seventy coal plants granted exemptions from compliance. Similarly, the administration has rolled back limits on particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides (pollutants linked directly to asthma, heart disease, and premature deaths) while loosening oversight of methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas.
Water protections have also been eroded. The Stream Protection Rule, which restricted coal companies from dumping mining waste into rivers and streams, was repealed, increasing the risk of heavy metals and toxins entering drinking water sources. Wastewater and coal ash standards for power plants have been relaxed, enabling greater discharge of arsenic, selenium, and other contaminants into waterways. By narrowing the scope of the Clean Water Act, fewer wetlands and tributaries now receive federal protection, leaving them vulnerable to pollution.
Collectively, these changes lower costs for coal operators but shift the burden onto communities, which face higher health risks from toxic air and water, degraded ecosystems, and accelerating climate change.
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