The Fight to Clean Mercury From New England's Lakes

Count me a fighter – for common sense. Some things do not fit in boxes. Many of us are pro-business, want greater reliance on America’s energy strengths, and want no more ideological subsidies. We want affordable energy. But we also fish, and like to eat fish. Midwestern coal is stopping that.

Each year, more than four tons of mercury – from Midwestern coal plants – is released by coal plants. It drifts north on trade winds, falling into gorgeous, fish-filled lakes across the Northeast, from New York to Maine. Maine has 6,000 lakes – all polluted by mercury from coal-fired plants.

Once in New England lakes, mercury drifts to the bottom, quickly bonding with sediment, and becomes methylmercury, which is eaten by bacteria, then by small fish, bigger fish, and humans.

To be clear, environmental standards can go too far. They can destroy businesses, cost vital jobs, drive energy costs up, hurt people – with no reflection on consequences, undermining quality of life. Darter snails and salmon are never more important than people. The opposite is nonsense.

But there is also a need for balance.  Just as extreme environmentalism is counterproductive, costing jobs that support the life and health of families – especially in rural states – so too, extreme non-regulation, a complete disinterest in public health and safety, is dangerous and can turn deadly.

For decades, good people – Republicans, Independents, and traditional Democrats – in New England have worked to square the circle, to get Midwestern governors to buffer coal plants, get them to stop emitting mercury and other chemicals. To be clear, this can be done.

Senator Susan Collins was a leader in this fight, in 2012 helping craft standards that kept coal-fired plants running but reduced mercury emissions. In 2024, her standards got tightened in three ways.

First, mercury emitted by so-called “lignite-fired” coal plants – “brown” coal – was to be cut, bringing those plants into line with 2012 standards for high-quality coal. Second, other chemicals – “filterable particulate matter” – were to be cut by two-thirds.

Like mercury, these non-mercury coal emissions were showing up in lakes across the Northeast. These include “lead, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel, and various acid gases.” Finally, checks on emissions were to be more frequent than quarterly, to ensure no glitches.

Coal advocates called the changes costly; they would cost millions – not billions. The response might have been, “Yes, but how costly to a northeasterner’s life and health, their kids, a state’s tourism, and basic fishing rights –  is the unmitigated flow of airborne mercury, ending in our lakes?”

Instead, the emphasis stayed with plant costs. Roughly ten percent of America’s energy comes from Midwestern coal plants. With solar and wind draining states of billions in subsidies, and oil costs high, the marginal cost of ending mercury pollution seems well worth it, very doable.

When the administration in February 2026 rolled the later amendments back, a unified response should have been issued by New England governors. These governors, more Democrats than Republicans, could have engaged Midwestern governors, found a way forward, gone to the White House, visited the EPA Administrator in person. Knowing Lee Zeldin, I would have.

Instead, the typical happened. Rhetoric and lawsuits flew. Why? Everything is now a mindless, pitched battle, with the alternative – old-fashioned conversation, tempered, fact-based, and traditional problem-solving – out the window, replaced by bash-happy “meet you in court” threats.

As a former litigator myself, my view is that much of what ends up in court could have been resolved outside the courtroom in conversation and negotiation, often yielding a quicker, cheaper outcome.

So, what should a good governor do now? He should lead on this issue, get other northeastern governors to engage midwestern governors, and push the White House to “buffer” out the mercury.

It can be done. As Maine’s Governor, someone focused on win-win solutions, I would push the science – activated carbon injection, wet flue gas desulfurization, electrostatic precipitators, and advanced oxidation – to get coal plants near zero emissions. Money is money, but lives are lives. When it comes to dangerous mercury polluting our lakes, we need to fight for common sense.