E.P.A. Offers a Way to Avoid Clean-Air Rules: Send an Email
Source: New York Times
E.P.A. Offers a Way to Avoid Clean-Air Rules: Send an Email
Invoking an obscure provision, it said power plants and others could write to ask for exemptions to mercury, arsenic and other restrictions and that "the president will make a decision."
A coal-burning power plant in Colorado in 2023. The Biden administration had put new rules in place on emissions from power plants. Rachel Woolf for The New York Times
By Hiroko Tabuchi
March 27, 2025
Updated 10:34 a.m. ET
The Biden administration required coal- and oil-burning power plants to greatly reduce emissions of toxic chemicals including mercury, which can harm babies' brains and cause heart disease in adults. ... Now, the Trump administration is offering companies an extraordinary out: Send an email, and they might be given permission by President Trump to bypass the new restrictions, as well as other major clean-air rules. ... The Environmental Protection Agency this week said it was invoking an obscure section of the Clean Air Act that enables the president to temporarily exempt industrial facilities from new rules if the technology required to meet those rules isn't available, or if it's in the interest of national security. (1)
In its notice to companies, the agency provided a template for companies to use to get approvals, including what to write in the email's subject line. Then "the president will make a decision on the merits," said the notice, issued by the E.P.A. on Monday. ... Joseph Goffman, former executive director of Harvard Law School's Environmental and Energy Law Program who served as E.P.A. assistant administrator for air pollution under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., said he feared the President Trump was "setting up a rubber stamp process" that would allow companies to avoid a long list of rules on air pollution.
{snip}
The latest move is part of an effort led by the E.P.A.'s administrator, Lee Zeldin, to steer the agency away from its original role of environmental protection and regulation, and change its mission to lowering the cost of purchasing cars, heating homes and running businesses, and encouraging what he has described previously as American energy dominance. (2)
{snip}
As of Thursday, it was unclear whether the agency had started to receive exemption applications, whether any had been granted, and if or how they would be disclosed. Companies must apply for exemptions by the end of the month, the E.P.A. said. ... The National Association of Manufacturers, the American Petroleum Institute, and the American Chemistry Council, which represent major regulated industries, did not immediately respond to comment.
Hiroko Tabuchi covers pollution and the environment for The Times. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years in Tokyo and New York. More about Hiroko Tabuchi
https://www.nytimes.com/by/hiroko-tabuchi
(1) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/climate/clean-air-act-epa.html
(2) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/climate/epa-zeldin-rollbacks-pollution.html
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/climate/epa-air-pollution-exemption-mercury-coal-ash.html
You have to know how to find these things.
https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/clean-air-act-section-112-presidential-exemption-information
Clean Air Act Section 112 Presidential Exemption Information
To advance President Trump's Executive Orders and Power the Great American Comeback, EPA has set up an electronic mailbox to allow the regulated community to request a Presidential Exemption under section 112(i)(4) of the Clean Air Act. You may submit a request for a Presidential Exemption to this email address: airaction@epa.gov by March 31, 2025.
The Clean Air Act allows the President to exempt stationary sources of air pollution from compliance with any standard or limitation under section 112 for up to two years if the technology to implement the standard is not available and it is in the national security interests of the United States to do so. Submitting a request via this email box does not entitle the submitter to an exemption. The President will make a decision on the merits.
An exemption may be extended for up to two additional years and can be renewed, if appropriate. On March 12, 2025, EPA requested that facilities and/or affected sources subject to the regulations below submit information about why their facility and/or affected source meets the requirements under Clean Air Act Section 112(i)(4) for a Presidential exemption while EPA reconsiders these rules:
"National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Coal- and Oil-Fired Electric Utility Steam Generating Units Review of the Residual Risk and Technology Review” (89 FR 38508; May 7, 2024) (MATS Rule)
“New Source Performance Standards for the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturing Industry and National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturing Industry and Group I & II Polymers and Resins” (89 FR 42932; May 16, 2024) (HON rule);
“National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Ethylene Oxide Emissions Standards for Sterilization Facilities Residual Risk and Technology Review” (89 FR 24090; April 5, 2024) (Sterilizer Rule);
“National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Rubber Tire Manufacturing” (89 FR 94886; November 29, 2024) (Rubber Tire Rule);
“National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Primary Copper Smelting Residual Risk and Technology Review and Primary Copper Smelting Area Source Technology Review” (89 FR 41648; May 13, 2024) (Copper Rule);
“National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Integrated Iron and Steel Manufacturing Facilities Technology Review” (89 FR 23294; April 3, 2024) (Iron and Steel Rule);
“National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Lime Manufacturing Plants Technology Review” (89 FR 57738; July 16, 2024) (Lime Rule);
“National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Coke Ovens: Pushing, Quenching, and Battery Stacks, and Coke Oven Batteries; Residual Risk and Technology Review, and Periodic Technology Review” (89 FR 55684; July 5, 2024) (Coke Ovens Rule); and
“National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Taconite Iron Ore Processing” (89 FR 16408; March 6, 2024) (Taconite Rule).
You may submit a request for a Presidential Exemption to this email address: airaction@epa.gov by March 31, 2025.
Please:
Use “Presidential Exemption: [Name of Regulation]: [Facility(ies) Name]” as the subject of the request.
Clearly identify the:
Emissions standards or limitations subject to the request,
Facility(ies) and/or affected source(s), and
Length of compliance period being requested.
Provide a justification to support the request, including:
An explanation why the technology to implement the standard is not available, and
An explanation why an extension is in the national security interests of the United States.
If submitting information on behalf of another facility and/or affected sources that is not under your direct control or ownership, please provide appropriate delegation of authority to submit the request.
Do not submit proprietary information. If intending to submit proprietary information, please note that if you wish to submit proprietary information and EPA will follow up, as appropriate.
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Last updated on March 24, 2025
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