ISTANBUL

The Trump administration has granted nearly 70 coal-fired power plants a two-year exemption from federal regulations aimed at reducing toxic emissions like mercury, arsenic, and benzene, according to a list on the Environmental Protection Agency website.

According to the list posted on Tuesday, 47 power providers, running 66 coal-fired plants, are being granted exemptions from certain Biden-era Clean Air Act regulations, including those limiting mercury and toxin emissions.

The exemptions apply to several of the country’s most polluting power plants, located in states such as Montana, North Dakota, Alabama, and Tennessee, located in the US South and West/Midwest, whose strong support for Donald Trump last fall helped propel his return to the White House.

This move came after President Trump signed an executive order last week to promote US coal.

Trump claimed that former President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats had tried to "abolish" the American coal industry for four years.

"We're slashing unnecessary regulations that targeted the beautiful clean coal. We will rapidly expedite leases for coal mining on federal lands ... and we'll streamline permitting," Trump said in his executive order.

On his first day in office this January, Trump cited his aim to boost domestic fossil fuel production while withdrawing from the Paris Agreement – a move that scientists warn could dangerously heat the Earth, making large parts of the planet uninhabitable and causing more climate-triggered disasters.