On April 9, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) to assist four struggling coal plants in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.[1] The coal plants burn low-quality coal refuse—waste abandoned from mining and burning coal. Under Obama-era MATS standards these plants did not meet acid gas hazardous air pollutant emissions standards, but the new rule creates a subcategory for these plants. This particular change to MATS is not likely to have a major environmental impact because of its limited scope.

According to the Anthracite Region Independent Power Producers Association (ARIPPA), a group that represents the coal refuse-to-energy industry across West Virginia and Pennsylvania, there are more than 5,000 abandoned mines across Pennsylvania that were never reclaimed, totaling between 200 million and 8 million cubic yards of waste.[2] One remediation solution for the problem, burning waste into energy, became viable in the late 1970s through the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), which sought to diversify the country’s electric resource profile. Since 1987, more than 212 million tons of coal refuse have been removed in Pennsylvania alone, but the coal plants are now struggling as their economic viability has declined. Without the rule change, two of the four plants affected would have likely closed by the end of May.

[1] https://www.epa.gov/mats/regulatory-actions-final-mercury-and-air-toxics-standards-mats-power-plants

[2] https://arippa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/ARIPPA-Coal-Refuse-Whitepaper-with-Photos-10_05_15.pdf