Ashley Moody on Clean Water and Pollution: Votes Against Mercury Limits and PFAS Reporting, the Toxic-Air Repeal, and the EPA Chief Behind Florida's PFAS Delay

Florida Senator Ashley Moody voted on June 3, 2026 against taking up a resolution to restore the 2024 limits on mercury and other toxic air pollution from coal- and oil-fired power plants (roll call 135), which EPA had repealed in February. Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that ends up in the water and soil, concentrating in fish. In August 2026 she voted against taking up a resolution to restore the deadline for chemical makers to report information regarding PFAS uses, production volumes, disposal, exposures, and hazards to EPA (roll call 222), and in 2025 she voted to repeal the rule that kept the largest sources of hazardous air pollution under the strictest controls.

Moody voted to confirm EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, whose agency proposed to rescind federal drinking-water limits for four "forever chemicals" and to give utilities two more years to meet the limits for the other two, which Central Florida Public Media reported is expected to affect water utilities in Florida. Zeldin's EPA also cancelled a Tampa grant meant to move University Area residents off private wells after complaints of brown drinking water.

Ashley Moody's Votes and Confirmations on Clean Water and Pollution

• Moody Voted Against Restoring Mercury Limits on Power Plants in June 2026. On June 3, 2026, Ashley Moody voted no on taking up S.J.Res. 188, which would have overturned EPA's repeal of the 2024 mercury and air toxics standards; it failed 46-53. On Feb. 20, 2026, EPA finalized its repeal of the Biden administration standards regulating HAPs from coal- and oil-fired plants, returning to the 2012 standards, and mercury builds up in fish and is particularly dangerous for pregnant women and young children.
• Moody Voted Against Restoring the Deadline for Chemical Makers to Report PFAS in August 2026. On August 5, 2026, Moody voted no on taking up S.J.Res. 187, which would have overturned EPA's delay of the rule requiring manufacturers to report PFAS uses, production and disposal. It failed 48-50. The original submission period was scheduled to begin on November 12, 2024; EPA's 2026 rule starts the submission period on January 31, 2027, or 60 days after the effective date of a new final rule, whichever is earlier, instead of the original 2024 start, so communities and regulators wait longer for data on where the chemicals are made and released.
• Moody Voted to Let Major Toxic Air Polluters Escape the Strictest Controls in May 2025. On May 1, 2025, Moody voted yes on S.J.Res. 31, which passed 52-46 and repealed EPA's 2024 "Once In Always In" rule. On June 20, 2025, Congress repealed the 2024 rule using the Congressional Review Act, so a major source can reclassify as an area source if it reduces its emissions below the threshold and leave the strictest federal controls behind.
• Moody Cast a Deciding Vote for the Law That Took Back Money for Cleaner Air at Schools and in Polluted Neighborhoods. On July 1, 2025, Moody voted yes on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 50-50 with the Vice President's vote. The law rescinded unspent funds for environmental and climate justice block grants, for programs to address air pollution at schools, and for diesel emissions reductions from trucks, buses and port equipment.
• Moody Confirmed the EPA Administrator Who Proposed Dropping Limits on Forever Chemicals in Drinking Water and Delayed Coal Ash Rules. On January 29, 2025, Moody voted to confirm Lee Zeldin as EPA administrator. On May 18, 2026 his EPA proposed a rule that would rescind Biden-era regulations for PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA, and Hazard Index mixtures in drinking water and another to extend the compliance deadlines for the PFOA and PFOS Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for two years, to 2031; the proposals are not yet final. On Feb. 6, 2026, EPA announced a final rule to delay deadlines for coal ash, ash that contains many contaminants, including mercury and arsenic, and it extended deadlines for limits on power-plant wastewater, which carries arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium, chromium, and cadmium. Policy Integrity estimates the wastewater delay puts $2.2 billion a year in net benefits and 112 premature deaths a year at risk.
• Moody Confirmed the EPA Administrator Whose Agency Cancelled a Grant to Bring City Water to Tampa Homes on Wells. Moody voted to confirm Lee Zeldin as EPA administrator on January 29, 2025. Zeldin's EPA terminated $15 million grant funding from the Inflation Reduction Act intended for Tampa Bay area projects, including an effort to switch University Area residents off well water and connect them to the city after complaints of brown drinking water, Spectrum Bay News 9 reported in August 2025; the group that won the grant said the work was halted. As of August 26, 2026, Inside Climate News reported, a July 2026 court order for the EPA to resume the program was under appeal and "In the meantime, communities still are without funding."

What the Pollution Rollbacks Ashley Moody Backed Mean for Florida's Water and Air

• Forever chemicals in tap water. PFOA and PFOS exceed the federal limit of 4 parts per trillion in water systems in 23 Florida counties, according to a University of Florida study reported by Central Florida Public Media. Under Zeldin's plan, Utilities will have until 2031, instead of 2029, to comply with those two limits, so the people served by those systems wait two more years for cleaner water.
• Wells in Tampa's University Area. The cancelled EPA grant was to connect University Area households that rely on wells to the city's water system after complaints of brown drinking water; the Tampa neighborhood's community development corporation said that work stopped when the grant was cut.

Frequently Asked Questions About Ashley Moody on Clean water and pollution

Last updated: 2026-10-25

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