Trump is Giving Corporate Polluters Another Blank Check to Pollute While Georgians Pay the Price With Their Health
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Atlanta, GA – After taking the most pro-pollution action in modern history when he repealed the endangerment finding, Trump is reportedly going even further today by allowing coal and gas plants to pump unlimited carbon pollution into our air. With this rollback, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is handing a favor to corporate polluters while Georgians pay the price with higher medical bills and more trips to the hospital.
Trump’s actions to gut pollution protections — rubberstamped by Republicans in Congress — are making Georgians sicker at the same time they have increased health care costs and paved the way for massive profits for their oil and gas donors. On top of that, his effort to prop up dirty, expensive coal power could actually raise energy costs at a time when Georgia families are already struggling to keep the lights on.
Former Senior Advisor to the EPA Administrator Zealan Hoover issued the following statement: “By eliminating the power plant pollution standards, Trump is choosing to allow preventable asthma attacks, heart disease, and even deaths. With more coal and gas being burned to power data centers, the impacts of this rollback will hit particularly hard in states like Georgia where developers are racing to take advantage of this pro-polluter EPA. Instead of ‘Making America Healthy Again,’ Trump is telling the biggest fossil fuel companies that they can make Americans sicker just to add to their bottom lines.”
Trump and Republicans in Congress have increased pollution and hurt public health across Georgia:
- Trump’s EPA repealed the endangerment finding, which obligated the federal government to protect communities from harmful air pollution that can cause life-threatening illnesses, including asthma and lung cancer. As of 2026, more than 1.6 million Georgians were particularly vulnerable to air pollution due to age and at-risk health conditions.
- Trump’s EPA weakened limits on toxic “forever chemicals” (PFAS) pollution, allowing more dangerous pollutants into the air and water. PFAS have been linked to a range of health problems, including cancer.
- Data from 2023 and 2024 showed 48 public water systems in Georgia were contaminated by PFAS, including at least four water systems with PFAS levels above the limits being scrapped by Trump’s EPA.
- Trump’s EPA weakened the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that were expected to reduce toxic metal pollution by 67% and generate $430 million in health and climate benefits. In 2025, two Georgia coal power plants, the Bowen and Scherer plants, reported toxic mercury emissions. From 2024 to 2025, Georgia’s mercury pollution increased by more than 10%.
- Coal ash, which is stored in sites at risk of spilling into rivers and lakes, contains chemicals such as arsenic, selenium, lead, mercury, and boron that are known to cause cancer, neurological damage, and heart problems.
- Georgia utilities operate 24 federally regulated coal ash ponds and landfills at nine coal plants, containing nearly 87 million cubic yards of toxic waste. As of September 2025, coal ash was stored at 13 power plant sites in Georgia. Of the plants with available data, all but one are contaminating groundwater above federal safe drinking water standards.
- Tests of well water near Plant Scherer, the largest coal-fired power plant in North America, revealed toxic pollutants. In 2024, residents of Juliette filed a lawsuit against Georgia Power, alleging that coal ash contamination had caused health problems, including cancer and liver damage, in local residents. A judge eventually ruled in favor of Georgia Power.
- In 2023, 144 facilities in Georgia reported emitting more than 25,000 metric tons of harmful air pollutants. Georgia’s largest emitter in 2023 was the Bowen Plant in Bartow, emitting 10,223,193 metric tons of toxic pollution.
- Trump’s EPA reversed more than 40 years of precedent by no longer accounting for the value of health and lives saved when setting standards for toxic air pollution.
** Former Senior Advisor to the EPA Administrator Zealan Hoover is available for comment. Reach out to press@climatepower.us to schedule an interview **
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