500-plus US facilities could duck chloroprene, other emission caps

More than 500 chemical manufacturing facilities, power plants, and metal smelters across the US and Puerto Rico qualify for the US Environmental Protection Agency’s recently publicized exemptions to the Clean Air Act, according to an analysis released Monday by the advocacy group the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

This analysis comes on the heels of a request last month from chemical and oil companies to be exempted from certain federal air pollution limits.

The highest number of facilities that could be exempted from a particular rule in EDF’s analysis are 218 chemical manufacturing plants that could apply for an exemption to what’s known as the HON rule. This legislation was enacted by the Joe Biden administration in 2024 to limit facilities’ emissions of “air toxics”—compounds, such as ethylene oxide and chloroprene, known or suspected to cause cancer in humans. Of these plants, 131 are in Louisiana and Texas.

“This new analysis shows that Administrator Zeldin’s reckless and dangerous invitation for industrial sources to evade compliance with national pollution limits on the most toxic contaminants puts millions of Americans in harm’s way,” Vickie Patton, general counsel at the EDF, says in a statement.

The organization reviewed EPA lists of facilities and found that 532 facilities across the US and Puerto Rico produce hazardous air emissions falling under one of nine of the Clean Air Act rules that the EPA opened up to applications for presidential exemptions on March 24.

Chemical, oil companies request exemptions

The EPA has not made the exemption applications public, and a spokesperson told CE&N that the agency has no updates at this time. But in a joint letter dated March 31 and obtained by Politico, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) request a 2-year exemption to the HON rule—the longest time allowed—on behalf of all of their members. In their letter, the two groups call the compliance requirements for the updated HON rule “significantly costly . . . on an unworkable timeline.” They estimate the cost for the rule’s risk-related requirements in excess of $50 billion.

“The HON rule, as adopted by the previous Administration, exceeds the EPA’s statutory authority, disregards relevant scientific evidence, and overlooks significant practical concerns,” the ACC says in an emailed statement to C&EN. The industry group says that the rule threatens production of chemicals important in national security interests. The ACC has been pushing back against the rule since before it was made final.

Of the 51 facilities in Louisiana subject to the HON rule on the EDF’s list, 29 are in the district of US Rep. Troy Carter Sr. (D). This area, Louisiana’s second congressional district, encompasses much of what is known as “Cancer Alley” because of the number of petrochemical plants. “Communities like mine in Louisiana and nationwide are overburdened by industrial pollution and deserve accountability,” Carter says in a statement emailed to C&EN. “It is unacceptable that the EPA would solicit these exemptions, particularly under the HON rule, without public input or consideration of health impacts in frontline communities.”

The EDF’s list and Carter’s district contain the neoprene manufacturing plant Denka Performance Elastomer, in Laplace, Louisiana. Under the Biden administration, the EPA brought a lawsuit against Denka for posing a high cancer risk to people who lived around the plant. The EPA dropped the suit against Denka in early March.

Some 80 petrochemical manufacturers on the EDF’s list are in Texas, the highest concentration in the US. Of these, 28 are in Texas’s 14th congressional district and 23 are in its 36th district. Neither of the US representatives for these districts, Randy Weber (R) and Brian Babin (R), respectively, answered C&EN requests for comment by publishing time.

In addition to the joint letter from the ACC and the AFPM, the New York Times reported April 2 that the Colstrip coal-burning power plant in Colstrip, Montana, also applied for an exemption. The power plant is subject to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS, rule, which sets emission standards for mercury and other hazardous air pollutants. The Colstrip plant tops the nation in emissions of harmful fine particulate matter pollution, according to a Times analysis of EPA figures.

According to the EPA exemptions website, section 112 of the Clean Air Act allows the president to grant exemptions to stationary sources of air pollution for up to 2 years. These exemptions apply to nine regulations and can be renewed. When asked when President Donald J. Trump will decide on which companies will get exemptions, White House assistant press secretary Taylor Rogers replied, “We will not get ahead of the president, but we can confirm President Trump’s commitment to unleashing American energy, protecting our national security interests, and ensuring environmental stewardship.”

Along with the HON and MATS rules, facilities could apply for exemptions to the Sterilizer rule, the Rubber Tire rule, the Copper rule, the Iron and Steel rule, the Lime rule, the Coke Ovens rule, and the Taconite rule. Collectively, these rules limit amounts of multiple hazardous air pollutants, including benzene, toluene, hydrogen chloride, chlorine, ethylene oxide, mercury, chloroprene, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Enforcement of the rules also reduces emissions of toxic metals such as lead and arsenic.

Applications for exemptions to the rules were due March 31.