The agency plans to weaken limits on toxic emissions from power plants while also scrapping restrictions on planet-warming greenhouse gases.
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to weaken a Biden-era regulation that required power plants to slash pollutants, including the emissions of mercury, a neurotoxin that impairs brain development, according to an internal agency document.
Lee Zeldin, the E.P.A. administrator, intends to announce the proposed changes within days, according to two people who have been briefed on the agency’s plans. Mr. Zeldin also will release a separate proposal to eliminate limits on greenhouse gases from power plants, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss agency plans.
Together, the changes represent a repudiation of efforts taken by the Biden administration to tackle climate change and address the disproportionate levels of air pollution faced by communities near power plants and other industrial sites. Once finalized, likely at the end of this year, both rules are expected to face legal challenges.
The moves are part of a broad strategy by the Trump administration to expand the use of fossil fuels, the burning of which is dangerously heating the planet. President Trump has taken several recent steps to try to boost the use of coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels.
An E.P.A. spokeswoman would not confirm the details of either regulation or when they would be made public. But Mr. Zeldin in a statement said he is “opposed to shutting down clean, affordable and reliable energy for American families.”
“E.P.A. needs to pursue common-sense regulation to Power the Great American Comeback, not continue down the last administration’s path of destruction and destitution,” he said.