The past few decades have seen a modest shift toward renewable and clean energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydropower. This has decreased the need for traditional energy sources such as natural gas, oil, and particularly coal. While crude oil remains the leading energy source worldwide, newer wellsprings of power create less of a strain on the environment and offer a less polluted path for the future. It is one reason the number of coal power plants in the U.S. has declined.
The decline in the need for coal power plants is a concern for the Trump administration. Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a list of power plants that use coal and other known industrial polluters and encouraged them to apply through a special email address for exemptions to pollution emission requirements enacted during the Biden administration.
Given President Donald Trump's longtime support of coal as an energy source, a move in this direction wasn't a surprise. The number of plants offered exemptions and the subsequent amount of mercury, arsenic, benzene, and other toxic chemicals that will be released into the air have environmentalists predicting dire consequences.
You Load 16 Tons, What Do You Get?
It's believed that coal was first used as an energy source over 4,000 years ago. Its use for steam engines in the U.S. began in the late 18th century, and the first coal-fired electricity generating station in New York went into operation in 1882. A fossil fuel that can either be surface mined or taken from underground mines, it's estimated that the U.S. contains about 250 years' worth of coal at current usage rates.
Over 90% of coal mined in the U.S. is used to create electricity. Crushed into a fine powder, it's mixed with hot air and heated in a furnace to create steam, which then spins blades in a turbine to generate mechanical power. This powers a generator, which converts the mechanical power into electric energy. Coal is a relatively easy and efficient way to supply electricity.
However, it's a bit of an ecological and environmental nightmare. While mining techniques have improved, surface mining can involve blowing the tops off mountains to get at the coal. The byproducts produced during the burning of the coal include dangerous gases and heavy metals such as:
- Carbon dioxide (CO2) (greenhouse gas)
- Fly ash and bottom ash (pollutants)
- Mercury and other heavy metals (neurological and developmental damage)
- Nitrogen oxides (smog and respiratory illnesses)
- Particulates (smog, haze, respiratory illnesses, and lung disease)
- Sulfur dioxide (acid rain and respiratory illnesses)
Both the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act require coal-burning plants to employ certain techniques and measures to reduce or eliminate the dangerous metals and gases created during the energy generation process. This includes "scrubbers" designed to reduce sulfur dioxide levels released into the environment. Under the Biden administration, the EPA added tougher regulations to smokestack emissions designed to eliminate carbon pollution from the energy sector by 2035.
Finding A Back Door
Lee Zeldin, the new head of the EPA, began his tenure in 2025 by announcing the rollback of dozens of existing environmental protections along with massive cuts to the EPA's staff and budget. He also proposed eliminating the EPA's entire scientific research office.
Removing the Biden-era protections placed on energy plants would prove tricky and complicated. The Trump administration went in a different direction by offering exemptions through the EPA instead. Deciding who receives one, though, is actually out of the hands of the agency.
Under the Clean Air Act, the president can exempt a power plant from being required to meet federal standards if an investigation shows that the technology necessary for the upgrades isn't widely available or if doing so would advance national security.
President Joe Biden granted some exemptions to give plants time to get the new protections in place. Some consider the list brokered by Trump and Zeldin as more of a sidestepping tactic.
The Effect on Climate Change
While the list, released without fanfare by the EPA on April 15, 2025, focuses on coal-burning plants, environmentalists are concerned that it will be expanded to cover hundreds of other businesses ordered to improve their pollution-deterring methods. The administration has promised cheap electricity and fewer restrictions on businesses, but the negative effects of acid rain and carbon dioxide pose a threat that some argue outweighs those gains.
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