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A coalition of U.S. power companies is demanding “immediate action” from the Trump administration to roll back federal regulation of toxic coal ash and rescind recent enforcement actions.
A Jan. 15 letter to Lee Zeldin, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, outlines specific steps the federal government should take to relieve power companies of their obligations to prevent coal ash from contaminating groundwater. The letter, which was obtained by Canary Media and has not previously been reported on, is signed by executives representing a dozen power-plant operators that collectively hold over half a billion cubic yards of the dangerous material, a byproduct of burning coal in power plants.
“These are powerful corporations asking for the administration to do their bidding even if those actions put health and the environment at risk, which they certainly will,” said Lisa Evans, senior attorney for Earthjustice, which compiled groundwater monitoring data in 2022 revealing the scope of coal-ash pollution that will remain in the U.S. even after a transition to clean electricity.
The companies represented in the letter are Duke Energy; Vistra; Southern Illinois Power Cooperative; Ohio Valley/Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corp.; Talen Energy; Louisville Gas & Electric/Kentucky Utilities; Gavin Power LLC; City Utilities of Springfield, Missouri; Basin Electric Power Cooperative in North Dakota; and the Lower Colorado River Authority.
The federal government lacked specific coal-ash regulations until 2015, when the Obama administration adopted rules following a long, contentious process. The standards omitted “legacy” coal ash stored in landfills and repositories that had closed before the rules took effect, and they were barely enforced until 2022, when the Biden administration made them a priority.
After years of litigation by environmental advocates, EPA last spring expanded cleanup requirements to include legacy impoundments, closing a major loophole that helped power-plant operators skirt responsibility for toxic pollution at scores of sites nationwide. Those rules are currently in effect but are being challenged in federal court by Republican attorneys general and power-industry groups.
The industry letter calls on the EPA to drop its legal defense of the legacy impoundment rules. It also asks the agency to rescind its prohibition on scattering coal ash to build up land, a practice companies call “beneficial reuse” that experts say can be extremely dangerous. In Town of Pines, Indiana, for example, this practice led to a massive Superfund cleanup.
The letter demands EPA revoke its closure order and guidance on coal ash at the Gavin Power Plant in Ohio, noting that the case could provide precedent for lawsuits concerning other sites. The EPA’s decision on the Gavin plant affirms that the 2015 rules prohibit leaving coal ash in contact with groundwater; industry groups filed a lawsuit arguing the rules actually do not mean that.
The letter also calls for the Trump administration to review other previous EPA enforcement at specific sites, “in light of new priorities.” And it calls for review of contracts awarded for coal-ash enforcement.
A Duke Energy spokesperson declined to comment. Vistra and Southern Illinois Power Cooperative did not respond to messages and emails sent Monday evening.
Evans disputed the letter’s contention that federal coal-ash regulations are not “practical and based on demonstrated risk.”
“Their claims are nonsense and unfounded,” Evans said. “For the Trump administration, it doesn’t matter whether these arguments have any merit; it matters who is asking.”
The vast majority of coal-ash sites nationwide are contaminating groundwater, companies’ own data shows. Duke Energy has excavated ash from a number of sites in North Carolina, following criminal charges related to the 2014 Dan River spill. Talen’s coal ash in Montana is putting the Northern Cheyenne Tribe at risk. American Electric Power, former owner of the Gavin plant, bought out the entire town of Cheshire, Ohio, because of pollution from the plant.
The industry letter also calls on Zeldin to “quickly rescind” a new EPA rule that would force fossil-fuel plants to install technology to drastically scale back their emissions. Dozens of states and companies are challenging that rule in federal court. As a Congress member from New York, Zeldin frequently voted against environmental protections. He also pledged to overturn the state’s ban on fracking during an unsuccessful run for governor.
The letter says the rules “threaten the reliability of the power grid, jeopardize national security, are a drag on economic growth, increase inflation, and hinder the expansion of electric power generation” needed for AI and other technologies.
Prior to Trump’s reelection, the EPA was increasingly prioritizing coal ash. In 2023, the agency announced coal ash was among six top enforcement priorities for fiscal years 2024 through 2027, saying failure to comply with the rules can cause significant “harm to human health and the environment … through catastrophic releases of contaminants into the air or contamination of groundwater, drinking water, or surface water.”
To change rules enshrined in federal law, the EPA would need to initiate a lengthy rulemaking process that includes public comment. Any new rules would need to meet standards in the Administrative Procedure Act, including having a “rational basis,” as the act says. If the agency were to adopt rules that failed to meet these criteria, advocacy groups would likely sue.
“You can’t just revoke a rule and replace it with one that’s friendly to industry,” said Evans. “If the reality is coal ash is contaminating groundwater at nearly every site in the country, it’s going to be hard for the Trump administration to write a rule that allows utilities to continue to pollute.”
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