PennFuture and CVPA Outraged by the Trump Administration putting more neurotoxins in the air
Trump’s Deadly Rollback of Mercury Standards is an Assault on Pennsylvania Children & Families
Friday, February 20, 2026 — Today, the Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is eliminating the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). These are hard-won public health protections that were built on decades of rigorous scientific research to protect our health. Now, in a reckless move that defies science and jeopardizes the health of our most vulnerable populations, this environmental protection is being sacrificed to enrich coal, oil, and gas CEOs and prop up the dirtiest and most expensive fossil fuels. The impacts will be direct and immediate and will fall hardest on Pennsylvanians—paying for this with our lungs and our livelihoods.
Mercury is known to be a potent neurotoxin (a poisonous substance—that disrupts, damages, or destroys the nervous system and nerve tissue). Once emitted into the atmosphere, this highly persistent toxin settles into our soil and waterways and can remain there for decades, posing a particular danger to pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants, and young children, and those already overburdened with environmental harms.
Patrick McDonnell, President and CEO of PennFuture states, “PennFuture has engaged in this rulemaking and joined in federal litigation to support more stringent, more protective, technology and scientifically backed emissions standards. So, let’s be clear on what today's egregious rollback means: Pennsylvanians are forced to sacrifice cleaner air and a healthier environment so that the dirtiest coal plants can make more money. This is not a close call. It is a decision about whether the federal government will protect our children's health or sacrifice it to squeeze more money out of a rapidly failing industry.”
Pennsylvania is home to some of the nation's oldest coal-fired plants which have emitted tons of mercury and other air toxins, harming Pennsylvania families for far too long. After decades of being subjected to these toxic pollutants, PennFuture and others finally won the right to have our communities better protected, only to have that ripped from our hands in favor of lining the pockets of our nation’s dirtiest polluters.
Molly Parzen, Executive Director of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania states, “Once again, the Trump Administration is choosing polluters over people and putting public health at risk. Eliminating the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards means more neurotoxins in our air, more contamination in our waterways, and more harm to Pennsylvania families. Mercury pollution is not theoretical — it damages children’s developing brains and threatens pregnant women and frontline communities. This rollback is reckless, unnecessary, and dangerous. Pennsylvanians deserve leaders who protect our health, not corporate profits.”
EPA's own data makes this action indefensible. In the first five years since the MATS rule took effect, mercury emissions from the power sector fell by 86 percent. The coal industry has already invested billions of dollars in pollution-control technology to meet those standards. Rolling back the rule now does not spare industry from costs already incurred. It will guarantee higher health care costs and environmental costs that will be paid for by hardworking Pennsylvanians.
PennFuture and Conservation Voters of PA will not stand by while critical environmental safeguards are shamefully dismantled at the federal level. We are prepared to vigorously oppose any regulatory rollbacks that put Pennsylvanians’ health, clean air, and clean water at risk. Since the EPA is working for big polluters and not the people, we will continue to fight for stronger state-level protections to ensure that Pennsylvanians have a more sustainable future that doesn’t sacrifice our health and environment.