The Trump administration just tossed out Biden-era restrictions on mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants. It’s repealing Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) just as electricity demand in the US ticks up with the buildout of new AI data centers. President Donald Trump’s deregulation spree aims to make it easier to quickly construct new data centers and fossil fuel infrastructure to power them — including coal plants. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its repeal of Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that the Biden administration strengthened in 2024. The Trump administration is rolling the standards back to where they were in 2012 when the Obama administration initially instituted them.