The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving to bolster its authority to enforce mercury emissions rules for coal- and oil-fired powerplants.

EPA wants to reverse aTrump administration rule调节汞,削弱了法律基础and other pollutants from those plants, and reaffirm public health and environmental benefits of reducing air pollutants through the 2012 Mercury and Air Toxic Standards (MATS), the agency said Jan. 31.

暴露于汞可能导致神经发育延误和其他健康风险。EPA说，动力植物是汞最大的汞来源。官员估计垫和电力部门进步导致2010年至2017年发电厂的汞排放量减少了86％。

特朗普政府从未取消调席克，但缩小了EPA将健康和环境效益纳入其成本效益分析的能力。

在1月31日提议,环保局称,2020年的行动"was based on a fundamentally flawed interpretation of the Clean Air Act" that undervalued the health benefits of reducing hazardous air pollutants from powerplants. The new proposal reaffirms legal arguments for the 2012 emissions standards and enables EPA to evaluate whether more stringent controls are needed.

The proposal has support from environmental activists and some power sector industry groups. Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, said in a statement that its member companies have been implementing MATS for years.

“恢复适当的和必要的发现使电气公司能够始终专注于获得我们尽可能快的能源，同时保持客户价值的可靠性和负担能力，”Kuhn说。

The move follows anexecutive orderissued by President Joe Biden last year directing federal agency heads to review Trump-era policies for anything that would be a hurdle in his administration's goal to combat climate change, specifically highlighting emissions from coal-fired power plants. In its announcement, EPA says the 2020 Trump administration action overlooked health benefits of reducing air pollution.

“声音科学使我们很明显，我们需要限制空气中的汞和毒素来保护儿童和脆弱的社区免受危险的污染，”EPA管理员迈克尔·瑞安说。

原子能机构表示，它将举行一份关于其提案的虚拟公共听证会，并将接受公众意见60天。