The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency moved Thursday to relax limits that require coal-fired power plants to prevent the release of toxic heavy metals into streams and rivers, saying a three-year-old rule is unduly costly for the energy industry at a time when energy demand is spiking.
It is the latest step that President Donald Trump's administration has taken to pull back regulations on coal mining and coal-fired power and empower fossil fuels as a primary energy source to feed the rapid growth of artificial intelligence data centers.
