The suit targets the Environmental Protection Agency's rollback of the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards Rule, which sets nationwide limits on emissions of toxic metals as well as acid gases like hydrogen chloride and formaldehyde from power plants. The EPA had updated those standards in 2024 following technological developments in pollution control, but the Trump administration reversed the updated standards last month, according to the announcement.
"Again and again, Trump is selling out our health and environment to enrich his fossil fuel friends," Tong said. "Big Oil knows how to limit these toxic pollutants. It's not hard or particularly costly. Trump just doesn't care."
The attorneys general contend the repeal is unlawful because the EPA failed to provide a reasoned basis for it and failed to adequately consider developments in practices, processes, and control technologies in its attempt to revert to outdated standards, according to the press release. They are asking the court to determine the rule is unlawful and must be reversed.
The coalition argues that mercury and other hazardous air pollutants disproportionately harm communities near coal- and oil-fired power plants, while emissions can travel great distances and deposit in other states. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that poses serious dangers to public health, especially for pregnant women and children, according to the announcement. A pregnant person's consumption of mercury exposes their child to mercury and can cause lifelong developmental harms and neurological disorders such as seizures, vision and hearing loss, or delayed development, the attorneys general say. Exposure to mercury also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and autoimmune dysfunction in adults, the coalition says.
Mercury emissions from power plants are also a major contributor to mercury contamination in U.S. waterways, the coalition says. Mercury pollution in lakes and rivers harms local commercial and recreational fishing economies, as well as tribal nations and indigenous peoples that rely on fishing for subsistence, according to the press release.
"We're suing today to protect Connecticut families from lifelong developmental harm and disease," Tong said.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison led the coalition, which includes attorneys general from Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, along with the city of Chicago, the city of New York, and Harris County, Texas.