EPA Yields to Industry in Air Pollution Rule for Chemical Manufacturing Plants

The final rule leaves communities around these facilities vulnerable to dangerous, cancer-causing air pollutants

Contacts

Tylar Greene, [email protected]

EPA signed a final rule last week updating air toxics standards for chemical plants that produce polyether polyols, a chemical product used to make lubricants and other products. The rule applies to approximately two dozen facilities in the U.S., mostly concentrated in Louisiana, Texas and West Virginia, that emit cancer-causing air pollution, including the potent carcinogen ethylene oxide (EtO). While the new rule provides long-needed and important protections that will reduce emissions of EtO and other hazardous air pollutants, Trump's EPA also adopted industry demands that weaken the rule in several ways.

The EPA has removed requirements to monitor EtO emissions at the areas surrounding facilities and abandoned its review of health risks caused by the facilities' emissions. These weakened requirements will have on-the-ground effects for communities living near these toxic facilities, such as increased cancer risk and other health effects from long-term exposure, including damage to the brain and reproductive system.

"These updated standards for polyether polyols facilities are a vital and long-overdue step in the right direction for protecting communities from ethylene oxide and other toxic pollutants," said Earthjustice Attorney Adam Kron. "However, the EPA ultimately yielded to industry demands by omitting its review of the facilities' excess cancer risk and removing critical requirements for ambient air monitoring at the perimeter of facilities. This is yet another instance where the Trump administration has chosen industry profits over human health."

The EPA last updated the standards for polyether polyols production facilities in 2014. After litigation by environmental and community groups represented by Earthjustice, the EPA proposed revised standards in December 2024, including air monitoring around the facilities, and new limits on EtO pollution for the first time.

While the final rule retains most of these reductions, Trump's EPA has diluted several protections. The EPA decided not to study the remaining cancer risk from facility emissions in nearby communities, risk mostly caused by the carcinogen EtO. Instead, the agency chose to finalize limits on EtO using its authority to set technology-based standards. Additionally, EPA has entirely removed the requirements that facilities monitor EtO emissions in the surrounding areas and take action to address any excess emissions. As a result, there wont be as great of a reduction in EtO emissions. As estimated in the proposed rule, the final rule will cut EtO emissions by 12 tons per year and total hazardous air pollutants by 97 tons per year. Earlier, the proposed rule estimated reductions of 14 tons of EtO and 157 tons of hazardous pollutants per year.

Polyether polyols are used in products like lubricants, adhesives, cosmetics, soaps, and feedstock. Their production releases toxic air pollutants such as EtO, propylene oxide, hexane, and toluene, which can cause cancer and other harmful health effects.

There are approximately two dozen polyether polyols production facilities in the United States; the vast majority are concentrated in Louisiana, Texas, and West Virginia. Texas and Louisiana are ranked as states with some of the worst air pollution rates. West Virginia's "Chemical Valley" - where most of the state's polyether polyols facilities are located - has a long history of disproportionate toxic emissions and health impacts on communities of color, including the sprawling and notorious Institute facility located in one of only two majority-Black communities in the state.

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