Trump Unravels Biden Chemical Plant Pollution Rule — SkimNews
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- Trump's EPA granted two-year exemptions from the HON rule to more than 50 petrochemical facilities last year and 20 more in July, with a full regulatory rewrite expected this fall that the source says will 'significantly scale back' protections.
- The HON rule, signed by Biden EPA chief Michael Regan in April 2024, was estimated to prevent 6,200 tons of toxic air pollution annually and slash ethylene oxide and chloroprene emissions from petrochemical plants by nearly 80%.
- The rule covers approximately 220 large petrochemical plants, nearly 60% of them in Texas and Louisiana, targeting six hazardous pollutants — including benzene and vinyl chloride — linked to breast cancer, liver cancer, leukemia, and lymphoma.
- Trump invoked a Clean Air Act 'national security interests' provision that environmental lawyers say had never previously been used, granting exemptions without supplying evidence to back claims that domestic chemical capacity underpins critical supply chains.
- Concerned Citizens of St. John and other advocacy groups sued Trump and the EPA in D.C. District Court last October, arguing the exemptions amount to 'a pretext to relieve polluters from working to comply' with the rule.
- St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, in the lower Mississippi corridor known as Cancer Alley, has the nation's highest cancer risk from air pollution — nearly 50 times the national average — with a disproportionate share of the exposed population Black.
- All nine Biden-era air toxics rules covering sectors from steelmaking to tire manufacturing and coal-fired power plants have been or are now being rescinded, revised, or reconsidered under Trump's second term.
Why it matters: Roughly 220 petrochemical plants — 60% clustered in Texas and Louisiana — are affected, and the rollback threatens to erase EPA-projected annual reductions of 6,200 tons of toxic air pollution and an 80% cut in ethylene oxide and chloroprene. For St. John the Baptist Parish, already facing cancer risk nearly 50 times the national average, the rule's unraveling is literally a matter of life and death for the Black communities bearing the heaviest exposure. The lawsuit in D.C. District Court tests whether Trump's unprecedented use of a 'national security' exemption can survive legal scrutiny.
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