Senate Republicans Give Free Pass to Toxic Polluters

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Republicans voted to eliminate an Environmental Protection Agency rule that prevents sources of especially persistent and bioaccumulative air toxics from increasing their emissions. Eliminating that regulation would permit over 1,800 industrial sources to discard the pollution controls currently in place to protect nearby communities from those hazardous air pollutants, which include mercury, dioxins, and hexachlorobenzene-toxics Congress singled out in the Clean Air Act as especially dangerous.

At the end of the Trump Administration's first term, the EPA eliminated its longstanding "Once In, Always In" policy, which ensured that industrial facilities that had adopted controls on toxic air pollution under the Clean Air Act's National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants continued to utilize those controls. The EPA revisedthe policy in September 2024, retaining the Trump-era rule but requiring sources of toxics that Congress identified as particularly dangerous to continue to apply strict pollution controls.

In response, Sierra Club Director of Climate Policy Patrick Drupp issued the following statement:

"The Clean Air Act's air toxics standards protect Americans from deadly air pollution. Now, Senate Republicans are betraying the people they swore to serve by allowing sources that have long complied with those standards to escape them.

"This is a free pass for toxic polluters to cut corners, emit tons of toxic chemicals into our air and water, and endanger the health of vulnerable Americans. We will not stand by and let the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans erode a critical, lifesaving safeguard."

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.