EPA guts rule credited with cleaning up coal-plant toxic air

ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday gutted an Obama-era rule that compelled the country's coal plants to cut back emissions of mercury and other human health hazards, a move designed to limit future regulation of air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants. Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler said the rollback was reversing what he depicted as regulatory overreach by the Obama administration. "We have put in place an honest accounting method that balances" the cost to utilities with public safety, he said. Wheeler is a former coal lobbyist whose previous clients have gotten many of the regulatory rollbacks they sought from the Trump administration. Environmental and public health groups and Democratic la