EPA offers industrial polluters a way to avoid rules on mercury, arsenic and other toxic chemicals

WASHINGTON — As part of a push to roll back dozens of environmental regulations, the Trump administration is offering coal-fired power plants and other industrial polluters a chance for exemptions from requirements to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and benzene.

The Environmental Protection Agency has set up an electronic mailbox to allow regulated companies to request a presidential exemption under the Clean Air Act to a host of Biden-era rules.

Companies were asked to send an email by Monday seeking permission from President Donald Trump to bypass the new restrictions. The Clean Air Act enables the president to temporarily exempt industrial sites from new rules if the technology required to meet them is not widely available and if the continued activity is in the interest of national security.

Environmental groups denounced the administration’s offer, calling the email address a “polluters’ portal” that could allow hundreds of companies to evade laws meant to protect the environment and public health. Exemptions would be allowed for nine EPA rules issued by the Biden administration, including limits on mercury, ethylene oxide and other hazardous air pollutants. Mercury exposure can cause brain damage, especially in children. Fetuses are vulnerable to birth defects via exposure in a mother’s womb.

Margie Alt, campaign director of the Climate Action Campaign, said the request for exemption applications “is a gift to the fossil fuel industry” and further indication of a “polluters-first agenda” under Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

“Companies can now apply for a gold-plated, ‘get-out-of-permitting free’ card,’’ she said, adding that the latest action marked at least the third time Zeldin has moved to weaken enforcement of environmental laws since he took office less than two months ago. On March 12, he announced a series of actions to roll back landmark environmental regulations, including rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants, climate change and electric vehicles.

Last month, Zeldin said he would push for a 65% spending cut at the agency, saying, “We don’t need to be spending all that money that went through the EPA last year.”

Trump and Zeldin, aided by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, have also pushed to drastically reduce EPA staffing, and the agency is considering a plan to eliminate its scientific research office. About 1,000 scientists and other employees who help provide the scientific foundation for EPA rules safeguarding human health and the environment could be fired.

The EPA’s offer for companies to request exemptions was first reported by The New York Times.

“Submitting a request via this email box does not entitle the submitter to an exemption,’’ the EPA said in a statement. “The President will make a decision on the merits.”

Authority for exemptions “solely rests with the president, not EPA,’’ added EPA spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou.

Former President Joe Biden offered similar exemptions after issuing a rule last year tightening emission standards for ethylene oxide from commercial facilities that sterilize medical equipment, she noted.

Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund, called EPA’s action “an invitation to pollute” and an abuse of power by Zeldin. Coal-fired power plants have long used scrubbers and other devices to limit mercury and other toxic pollution and can continue to do so, she said, adding that hundreds of companies nationwide could potentially apply for exemptions that are neither needed nor legal.

“We will go to court. We will get their records and we will make that list (of exemptions) public,’’ she said.

Jason Rylander, a lawyer for another environmental group, the Center for Biological Diversity, called the EPA’s actions ridiculous and one more demonstration that the Trump administration wants to help polluters, not protect the environment.

“It is an enormous stretch to suggest that there’s some national interest in giving industry the right to pollute. That doesn’t make sense to me,” he said.

Trump declared an energy emergency early in his term and has embraced policies to boost and oil and gas production, which he sums up as “ drill, baby drill.”

“In my view, we’re in the middle of a climate emergency,’’ Rylander said. “But in the Trump administration’s view, we have this fictitious national energy emergency that may provide a basis for (Trump) to claim this is somehow in the national security interests of the United States.”

Exemptions offered this week also could apply to more than 200 chemical plants nationwide that are being required to reduce toxic emissions likely to cause cancer. The rule, issued last year, advanced the former president’s commitment to environmental justice by delivering critical health protections for communities burdened by industrial pollution from ethylene oxide, chloroprene and other dangerous chemicals, the Biden administration said.

Formally undoing the Biden administration’s protections, however, is complicated and could take years. Exemptions for specific plants may be a faster workaround in the meantime, according to Bradford Mank, a law professor at the University of Cincinnati.

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Associated Press writer Michael Phillis in St. Louis contributed to this report.