BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday finalized its weakening of an Obama-era rule aimed at reducing polluted wastewater from coal-burning power plants that has contaminated streams, lakes and underground aquifers
The change will allow utilities to use cheaper technologies and take longer to comply with pollution reduction guidelines that are less stringent than what the agency originally adopted in 2015.
It’s the latest in a string of regulatory rollbacks for coal power under Trump — actions that have failed to turn around the industry’s decline amid competition from cheap natural gas and renewable energy.
