LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday weakened limits on mercury and other toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants, the Trump administration’s latest effort to boost the fossil fuel industry by paring back clean air and water rules.

Toxic emissions from coal- and oil-fired plants can harm the brain development of young children and contribute to heart attacks and other problems in adults. The plants are also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change. The EPA announced the repeal of the tightened Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule, or MATS, at a massive coal plant next to the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky.

“EPA’s actions today rights the wrongs of the last administration’s rule and will return the industry to the highly effective original MATS standards that helped pave the way for American energy dominance,” said EPA Deputy Administrator David Fotouhi. The agency said the change should save hundreds of millions of dollars.

The final rule reverts the industry to standards first established in 2012 by the Obama administration that have reduced mercury emissions by nearly 90%. The Biden administration had sought to tighten those standards even further after the first Trump administration had moved to undermine them.

Operators of the Mill Creek Generating Station gave agency officials a tour of the coal plant before hosting the announcement inside.

Coal-fired power plants are the largest single human source of mercury pollutants. Power plants release the mercury into the atmosphere, which then falls in rain or simply by gravity, entering the food chain through fish and other items that people consume.

Environmental groups said the tightened rules have saved lives and made communities that live near coal-fired power plants healthier. But industry groups argued that the tougher standards, along with other rules that limited emissions from coal plants, made operating them too expensive.

They accused the Biden administration of piling on so many requirements that it would drive a rush of plant retirements.

“For too long, the entire coal supply chain has been the target of bad and onerous environmental regulations,” said Michelle Bloodworth, CEO of America’s Power, a coal industry group. “Repealing the 2024 MATS rule and today’s actions are an important step for maintaining a reliable and affordable supply of electricity and ensuring that coal-based generation can continue supporting the nation’s economy and the electric grid.”

The coal industry’s outlook has changed dramatically in the last year.

In March, the EPA promoted the “biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history,” announcing their intention to peel back dozens of environmental protections. The Biden administration’s focus on climate change was over — EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the actions marked “the death of the ‘green new scam.’” Fossil fuel rules were big targets, including major efforts to reduce carbon emissions from coal plants and mandate greenhouse gas reporting. The Trump administration has also extended deadlines for dozens of coal-fired power plants to comply with certain Clean Air Act rules.

Beyond fewer environmental protections, the Trump administration has issued emergency orders halting the planned shutdown of several coal plants. Officials say the plants produce consistent power during major storms or at other times when need is high. Removing coal would reduce the grid’s reliability, especially at time when a rush of new data centers is demanding more than ever from the grid, they say. Officials have dismissed concerns about higher customer costs from keeping coal plants operating, their plentiful emissions and their significant contribution to climate change.

And earlier this month, the EPA revoked a finding that climate change is a threat to public healthwhich has long been the basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Recently, President Donald Trump hosted a group of coal miners who honored him as the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful, Clean Coal.”

Activists say favoring coal makes little sense at a time when renewables are cleaner, cheaper and reliable.

Gina McCarthy, who headed the EPA under former President Barack Obama, said the Trump administration will be remembered for helping the coal industry at the expense of public health.

“By weakening pollution limits and monitoring for brain-damaging mercury and other pollutants, they are actively spiking any attempt to make America – and our children – healthy,” said McCarthy, who is also the chair of the climate action group America Is All In.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed. Phillis reported from Washington.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An exhibit detailing the lives of nine people enslaved by President George Washington in Philadelphia is being reinstalled on Thursday, despite an ongoing legal fight between the city and the Trump administration.

The stories and images that had been on display for two decades were abruptly removed last month following an executive order by President Donald Trump. The city subsequently sued for the exhibit to be rehung and a federal judge set a Friday deadline for its full restoration.

Mayor Cherelle Parker visited Independence Mall — the site of the former President’s House — on Thursday morning.

“I want you to know I’m grateful,” Parker said as she introduced herself to several of the National Park Service workers lifting large panels back onto the display area. Parker is the first Black woman to be elected mayor in Philadelphia.

“It’s our honor,” one replied. The restoration work was expected to continue through Friday.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, which is appealing Senior U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe’s ruling, declined to comment on the restoration work, a spokesperson said.

Trump’s order called for “restoring truth and sanity to American history” at the nation’s museums, parks and landmarks. The administration argued that it alone can decide what stories are told at Park Service properties around the country.

“Although many people feel strongly about this (slavery exhibit) one way, other people may disagree or feel strongly another way,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory in den Berken argued during a Jan. 30 court hearing.

“Ultimately,” he said, “the government gets to choose the message it wants to convey.”

Rufe cut him off, calling the comments “dangerous” and “horrifying.”

As the fate of the exhibit played out in court, educators brought students to the site to reflect on the missing history and supporters of the exhibit posted messages such as “Washington owned slaves here” on the empty walls.

Independence Mall is one of several historical sites where the administration has quietly removed content about the history of enslaved people, the LGBTQ+ community and Native Americans, in what some call an erasure of the nation’s history.

In a 40-page opinion issued on Presidents’ Day, Rufe compared the Trump administration to the totalitarian regime in the dystopian novel “1984.”

“If the President’s House is left dismembered throughout this dispute, so too is the history it recounts,” Rufe, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, wrote.

“Worse yet, the potential of having the exhibits replaced by an alternative script — a plausible assumption at this time — would be an even more permanent rejection of the site’s historical integrity, and irreparable,” she wrote.

Rufe granted an injunction ordering the restoration of the materials while the lawsuit proceeds and barring Trump officials from creating new interpretations of the site’s history.

A spokesperson said Tuesday that the Interior Department had planned an alternative display “providing a fuller account of the history of slavery at Independence Hall.” On Wednesday, government lawyers asked that the restoration order be put on hold while their appeal plays out.

It is not yet clear how the decision to restore the exhibit would affect the court case.

The exhibit includes biographical details on the people enslaved by George and Martha Washington at the presidential mansion: Austin, Paris, Hercules, Christopher Sheels, Richmond, Giles, Oney Judge, Moll and Joe.

“When the exhibit was taken down, it was very devastating for the city. It was very devastating to me personally. I value the visibility of Black history, which is American history. So I’m really happy that it’s restored,” said Jabari Cherry, a Philadelphia resident who visited the site Thursday.

Millions of people are expected to visit Philadelphia, the nation’s birthplace, this year for the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding in 1776.

“A lot of people are going to be coming through these streets,” said Tatiana Alvarez of Los Angeles, who stopped by Thursday. “It’s a very historic town, but it’s important that we acknowledge the history of America — all of our history — whether that’s easy or the difficult history that is tackled here.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s little that Donald Trump has cherished more in his second term than tariffs, a symbol of his imperious approach to the presidency. He has raised and lowered them at will, rewriting the rules of global commerce and daring anyone to stop him.

Now that may be over, the victim of a stunning rebuke from the Supreme Court on Friday. After more than a year of expanding his power, Trump had run into a rare limit.

It was a loss that Trump couldn’t quite accept, and the president claimed he would use other laws to impose alternative tariffs. He even said that the end of this particular legal battle would bring “great certainty” to the economy.

But if anything, Friday opened a new chapter in Trump’s ongoing tariffs drama and raised urgent questions about his ability to make good on his promises of an economic revival. The ruling will most likely prolong chaos over international trade through the midterm elections, with much unknown about Trump’s next steps and whether roughly $175 billion in import taxes that the Supreme Court struck down will be refunded.

The president chose, as he often does, to scorn the patriotism of those who disagree with him.

He said the ruling was “deeply disappointing” and “ridiculous,” adding that he was “absolutely ashamed” of the six Supreme Court justices who ruled against him “for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country.”

Trump described the justices as “fools and lapdogs” who are “very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution.”

The president said on social media Friday night that he had signed an executive order enabling him to bypass Congress and impose a 10% tax on imports from around the world. The government would begin national security investigations in order to charge new tariffs on specific products as well. The 10% tariffs are legally capped at 150 days, but Trump brushed off a question about the limit by saying “we have a right to do pretty much what we want to do.”

All of that means Trump’s tariff timelines are likely to collide with the midterm elections for control of the House and Senate.

Tariffs have been politically unpopular

Trump learned of the Supreme Court’s decision during a private meeting with governors in the morning when he was handed a note, according to two people with knowledge of the president’s reaction who spoke on the condition of anonymity. They said he called it “a disgrace.”

Another person, who was briefed on the conversation, disclosed that Trump said he has “to do something about these courts.”

The meeting with the governors ended shortly thereafter.

Looming over Trump’s legal debacle has been voters’ frustration with the tariffs, which have been linked to higher prices and a slowdown in hiring.

The president has consistently misrepresented his tariffs, claiming despite evidence to the contrary that foreign governments would pay them and that the revenues would be sufficient to pay down the national debt and give taxpayers a dividend check.

After Trump announced worldwide tariffs last April, an AP-NORC poll found that 76% of Americans said the policies would increase the cost of consumer goods — a worrisome sign for a president elected on the promise of addressing years of inflation.

Another poll, conducted in January, said about 6 in 10 Americans said Trump had gone too far in imposing new tariffs on other countries.

Trump used tariffs to reshape Republican trade agenda

Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs had left many Republican lawmakers uneasy, publicly and privately, forcing them to defend what were essentially tax increases on the American public and businesses.

At various points during Trump’s second term, at least seven senators from the president’s party have voiced their concerns. Earlier this month, six House Republicans joined with Democrats to vote for a resolution against Trump’s tariffs on Canada.

Indeed, free trade had long been a central plank of the Republican Party before Trump’s rise to power.

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell described Trump’s assertion that he can bypass Congress to implement tariffs as “illegal” in a statement praising the Supreme Court’s decision.

“Congress’ role in trade policy, as I have warned repeatedly, is not an inconvenience to avoid,” the former top Senate Republican said. “If the executive would like to enact trade policies that impact American producers and consumers, its path forward is crystal clear: convince their representatives under Article 1” of the Constitution.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who served during Trump’s first term, cheered the ruling.

“American families and American businesses pay American tariffs — not foreign countries,” Pence wrote on social media. “With this decision, American families and businesses can breathe a sigh of relief.”

Democrats were quick to seize on the Supreme Court ruling to say Trump broke the law and middle-class families suffered as a result.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said Trump “is not a king” and his “tariffs were always illegal.”

“Republicans in Congress could have easily ended this economic crisis by standing up for their communities,” said DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Instead, they chose to bend the knee to Trump while families, small businesses and farmers suffered from higher prices.”

Tariffs were central to Trump’s economic pitch

Trump has claimed that his tariffs were the difference between national prosperity and deep poverty, a pitch he made Thursday to voters in the swing state of Georgia.

The president used the word “tariff” 28 times in his speech at a Georgia steel company, Coosa Steel, which credited the import taxes as making its products more competitive with goods from China.

“Without tariffs, this country would be in such trouble right now,” Trump insisted.

Trump also complained that he had to justify his use of tariffs to the Supreme Court.

“I have to wait for this decision. I’ve been waiting forever, forever, and the language is clear that I have the right to do it as president,” he said. “I have the right to put tariffs on for national security purposes, countries that have been ripping us off for years.”

By a 6-3 vote, the high court said no.

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Associated Press writer Steven Sloan contributed to this report.