Trump administration hands out unlawful air pollution exemptions to more petrochemical facilities

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration has exempted more petrochemical facilities across the country from Clean Air Act standards, unlawfully giving more of these chemical plants a free pass to pollute.

The unlawful presidential exemptions allow these facilities to avoid complying with a set of pollution limits known as the HON Rule, a landmark suite of protections intended to drive down emissions at more than 200 high-polluting chemical manufacturing plants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that HON Rule protections would reduce air toxics-related cancer risks to communities near these facilities by 96 percent.

Last March, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin invited corporations to email the agency to request exemptions from several clean air standards, including the HON Rule. Companies were told they could cite "national security" or "lack of available technology" as justifications.

A coalition of community, environmental and health groups sued the administration last year to block the Trump administration's exemptions for a prior set of 50 chemical manufacturing plants announced last summer. This week's announcement of an additional set of facilities comes mere days ahead of when plants were due to start complying with certain protections.

Quotes

"The Trump administration has once again tried to open a back door for polluters to avoid following basic clean air rules," said Rosalie Winn, senior director and lead counsel, methane and clean air policy at Environmental Defense Fund. "These protections are intended to keep people safe from some of the most toxic forms of air pollution. Ripping them away will mean more cancer, more children struggling to breathe and more lives cut short."

"Days before these chemical plants would have been required to begin monitoring for leaks and reducing their toxic emissions, the Trump Administration has once again written industry a blank check at the expense of human health," said Adam Kron, senior attorney at Earthjustice. "These unlawful exemptions will leave communities with dirtier air and greater cancer risks while corporations get another free pass to pollute. It's clear who matters to this administration and who doesn't."

"For President Trump to offer yet more exemptions from common sense air pollution control rules for chemical plants is irresponsible and damaging to public health," said Jen Duggan, Executive Director of the Environmental Integrity Project. "The Trump Administration should be focused on keeping Americans safe from toxic chemical plant pollution - not giving companies a free pass to pollute our neighborhoods."

"No president gets to decide which companies obey the law," said Sarah Buckley, NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) senior attorney. "The Trump administration is giving polluters illegal passes on the Clean Air Act, and we all breathe the consequences. We won't stop fighting to hold them accountable."