September 9, 2025Polluter free passes show Trump Administration’s indifference to community health
Media Contact
Deidre Nelms; Communications Director; Coming Clean; dnelms@comingcleaninc.org, (802) 251-0203 ext. 711.
STATEMENT
On April 8 and July 17, 2025, President Trump issued three proclamations exempting certain coal plants, ethylene oxide sterilizers, and chemical plants from regulations that would have required them to reduce their toxic air emissions. These exemptions came after corporate lobbyists asked for broad-reaching compliance exemptions to all affected stationary sources and facilities regulated by the Clean Air Act.
Coming Clean and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform issued the following statement:
Exposure to chemical plant pollution can shorten lives and contribute to many health problems. Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally took action to reduce emissions of cancer-causing toxics like ethylene oxide and chloroprene from chemical plants, and developmentally-toxic mercury and heavy metals from coal plants.
President Trump’s proclamations give over 150 facilities (52 chemical plants, 39 sterilizers and 68 of the country’s dirtiest coal plants) a free pass to ignore these pollution-reducing rules that would otherwise protect lives and health.
Many of these exemptions disproportionately impact Black, Latino and low-income communities already dealing with cumulative impacts from multiple industrial sources. Polluter exemptions are an affront to fenceline communities, and display the Trump Administration’s blatant lack of regard for community health.
Examples of exempted facilities
- The Celanese Clear Lake plant and the INEOS Oxide Bayport Plant in Pasadena, Texas each released over ten thousand of pounds of cancer-causing ethylene oxide in 2023. These facilities were granted exemptions from the HON rule that required significant reductions in ethylene oxide emissions starting in 2026.
- The Bakelite Synthetics facility in Louisville, KY emits cancer-causing formaldehyde and other hazardous air pollutants 500 feet from people’s homes. This facility was granted an exemption from the updated provisions in the HON rule, such as stricter control of pollutants during start-up and shut-down.
- This action exempts at least 7 facilities that emit large quantities of the harmful chemicals covered by the HON rule that are located in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, where Mossville is located. Mossville is a historic Black community in Louisiana founded by free Black people before the end of slavery in the United States. Mossville is now choked by more than a dozen heavily polluting industrial facilities. Blood-levels of dioxin in Mossville were found to be three times that of the general population. The community will no longer benefit from the new emissions limits for dioxin set by rule which are emitted from multiple nearby HON facilities.
Coming Clean is a nonprofit environmental health collaborative working to transform the chemical industry so it is no longer a source of harm, and to secure systemic changes that allow a safe chemical and clean energy economy to flourish. Our members are organizations and technical experts — including grassroots activists, community leaders, scientists, health professionals, business leaders, lawyers, and farmworker advocates — committed to principled collaboration to advance a nontoxic, sustainable, and just world for all.
The Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform is a national network of grassroots Environmental and Economic Justice organizations and advocates in communities that are disproportionately impacted by toxic chemicals from legacy contamination, ongoing exposure to polluting facilities and health-harming chemicals in household products. EJHA supports a just transition towards safer chemicals and a pollution-free economy that leaves no community or worker behind.