by Anne Hedges
On June 12, MEIC joined a dozen other organizations and sued Pres. Donald Trump and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In an executive proclamation, Pres. Trump allowed power plants like the one in Colstrip to ignore public health regulations that limit toxic air pollution such as mercury, lead, and arsenic from coal-fired power plants. MEIC is represented by Earthjustice in the case.
The lawsuit follows a decision on April 8, 2025, by Pres. Trump to issue a series of executive actions allowing companies such as NorthWestern Energy to delay installing pollution controls that hundreds of power plants across the country have already installed. Pres. Trump’s proclamation also allowed these 68 coal-fired power plant owners to avoid installing monitors that allow the public and regulators to know if the plants are actually limiting toxic pollution on a continuous basis. Currently, power plants only have to test four times a year to verify that they are not harming public health and the environment with unsafe levels of toxins such as lead and arsenic.
In our lawsuit, we argue that Pres.Trump exceeded the authority given to him by Congress. The law only allows him to delay implementation of a toxic pollution requirement if the technology to limit the toxins does not exist. In this case, that technology has been widely used for decades. Pres. Trump does not have the authority to bypass the requirements for power plants that were established by Congress in 1990. Montanans have been unfairly and unnecessarily poisoned for decades because the Colstrip power plant has the highest rate of toxic emissions of any power plant in the nation. Nearly every other plant has already installed pollution control technology. But not the Colstrip plant. The Colstrip plant owners’ callous disregard for human health and safety is second only to Pres. Trump’s disregard for public health and the law.
It is even more insulting that despite the Colstrip plant already having continuous emissions monitors, the owners do not have to provide that data to the public to prove they are in compliance with the law, and regulators cannot use the monitors to enforce against any violations of the law. Now, Pres. Trump is giving them a free pass.
What’s more, in June, the EPA proposed to completely repeal the Biden Administration’s 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS) pursuant to Pres. Trump’s Executive Orders. This would mean the Colstrip plant would continue to poison those living downwind even though the technology exists to limit that pollution and most power plants are already using it. MEIC and dozens of Montanans objected to EPA’s proposal during the July public hearing and also in written public comment. Unfortunately, we fully expect EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to do Pres. Trump’s bidding and allow NorthWestern Energy and the other Colstrip plant owners to continue to unnecessarily poison people and the environment.
No doubt suing Pres. Trump over this reckless behavior toward public health will just be the first of many MEIC lawsuits against this lawless administration.
This article was published in the September 2025 issue of Down To Earth.
