Congress moves to strip mercury pollution limits from coal power plants
H.R. 3870 — COAL POWER Act · Filed by Troy Downing (R-MT) · 13 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 10, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill repeals an EPA rule issued in May 2024 that set stricter air pollution standards for coal and oil-fired power plants. The rule required utilities to review and reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants like mercury and arsenic. Repealing it removes those pollution-control requirements, benefiting coal and oil power generators at the expense of public health protections.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative function is to eliminate a specific EPA air-pollution rule. The acronym 'COAL POWER Act' and the full title 'Combating Overregulation And Limitation of Proven, Operable, Working Energy Resources' explicitly frame the repeal as deregulation favoring coal and oil generation.
What the text implies
- Repealing the 2024 rule does not restore the prior standard — it eliminates any federal hazardous-air-pollutant review requirement for coal/oil utilities, creating a regulatory vacuum that may persist until a new rule is issued.
- The rule being repealed was itself a 'residual risk and technology review' — a periodic reassessment required by the Clean Air Act. Repealing it may delay or prevent future reviews, locking in outdated pollution limits.
- Communities with multiple coal or oil plants may experience cumulative air-quality degradation; the bill contains no local-impact analysis or exemption for non-attainment areas.
- Mercury and arsenic from power plants bioaccumulate in fish; repealing the rule may increase fish-consumption advisories and disproportionately affect subsistence and low-income fishing communities.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens lose enforceable protections against hazardous air pollution from power plants. Mercury and arsenic emissions are linked to neurological damage, cardiovascular disease, and cancer; removing the rule increases public health risk, particularly for communities near coal and oil plants and for vulnerable populations including children and pregnant women.
Who stands to gain
- coal-fired electric utilities
- oil-fired electric utilities
- coal mining companies
- coal transportation and logistics
Named in the bill
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), coal-fired electric utility steam generating units, oil-fired electric utility steam generating units, 89 Fed. Reg. 38508, Clean Air Act
Where it stands
13 cosponsors: 13 Republicans.
- Jun 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 10, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (538 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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