A coalition of U.S. power companies is demanding ​“immediate action” from the Trump administration to roll back federal regulation of toxic coal ash and rescind recent enforcement actions.

A Jan. 15 letter to Lee Zeldin, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, outlines specific steps the federal government should take to relieve power companies of their obligations to prevent coal ash from contaminating groundwater. The letter, which was obtained by Canary Media and has not previously been reported on, is signed by executives representing a dozen power-plant operators that collectively hold over half a billion cubic yards of the dangerous material, a byproduct of burning coal in power plants.

“These are powerful corporations asking for the administration to do their bidding even if those actions put health and the environment at risk, which they certainly will,” said Lisa Evans, senior attorney for Earthjustice, which compiled groundwater monitoring data in 2022 revealing the scope of coal-ash pollution that will remain in the U.S. even after a transition to clean electricity.

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The vast majority of coal-ash sites nationwide are contaminating groundwater, companies’ own data shows. Duke Energy has excavated ash from a number of sites in North Carolina, following criminal charges related to the 2014 Dan River spill. Talen’s coal ash in Montana is putting the Northern Cheyenne Tribe at risk. American Electric Power, former owner of the Gavin plant, bought out the entire town of Cheshire, Ohio, because of pollution from the plant.

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