U.S. Steel, Ebensburg Power Company and Keystone-Conemaugh Projects are among the companies that have requested from the Trump administration exemptions from certain air quality standards for toxic pollutants, such as mercury and benzene.
In March, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin invited industrial polluters — such as coal-fired power plants and coke ovens that release hazardous air pollution — to apply for two-year exemptions from nine rules issued by the EPA in 2024, known as National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, or NESHAPs.
"We are deeply concerned with exemptions, which allow air toxics to affect public health in Allegheny County, or having sources of pollution negatively affect our community to meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards," said Ronnie Das, public health information officer with the Allegheny County Health Department, in a statement.
"Such exemptions risk undermining the hard-won progress made in protecting public health, preserving natural ecosystems, and ensuring environmental equity for all communities," Das said.
Under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act, the president is allowed to exempt stationary sources of air pollution from compliance with EPA rules up to two years if the technology required to meet the new standards isn't available or if the president deems such exemptions a national security interest.
"This is an effort that just hasn't been done before," said Sarah Vogel, senior vice president of Healthy Communities at the Environmental Defense Fund. The environmental nonprofit released a map of facilities in the U.S. that would be eligible for these exemptions.
Usually when an administration wants to roll back certain regulations, it does so by engaging in a series of legal and administrative procedures defined by federal law. Those steps include putting a hold on new rules for review, asking the agency to revise or update the rule and going through a public notice and comment period.
"I think what you're seeing are efforts to just completely shortcut that system and just wipe away rules without any plans to revise or update them," Vogel said.
"It's so different in the sense that it's just so much more aggressive [and] questionable how lawful a lot of the actions are. And certainly beyond the bounds of… deregulatory efforts that we've seen in the past, where you're reviewing what had been done by the previous administration and then maybe reissuing rules through a rulemaking process."
Since EPA administrator Zeldin issued his invitation to apply for exemptions in March, a slew of coal-fired power plants applied for and received a presidential exemption from the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standard — or MATS — a rule updated under the Biden administration that lowered the limit on allowable emissions of filterable particulate matter. This lower limit would've gone into effect in July 2027.
In Western Pennsylvania, the power plants that applied for and received a two-year exemption include: the Colver Green Facility and Ebensburg Power Company Generating Station, both in Cambria County; Scrubgrass Generating Plant in Venango County; Seward Generation Station in Indiana County; Keystone Generating Station in Armstrong County; and Conemaugh Generating Station in Indiana County, according to the Federal Register.
"The strange part about those are that nearly all of the western Pennsylvania coal-fired power plants had already met the lower standards set by that rule," said Patrick Campbell, executive director at Group Against Smog and Pollution, or GASP, a southwestern Pennsylvania nonprofit focused on air quality in the region.
According to the presidential proclamation issued on April 7 granting those exemptions, coal-fired power plants are critical to national energy security and "forcing energy producers to comply with unattainable emissions controls jeopardizes this mission."
The 2024 MATS Rule places "severe burdens on coal-fired power plants," the proclamation reads, going on to state that emissions-control technologies that would enable compliance "do not yet exist in a commercially viable form."
U.S. Steel has applied for exemptions from three EPA rules, including the Integrated Iron and Steel Rule, according to their most recent quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This rule would impact the Mon Valley Works in West Mifflin and set lower limits on hazardous air pollutants from blast furnace emissions, among other requirements.
The steelmaker also applied for a two-year exemption from the 2024 revisions to the NESHAPs for coke ovens, which would apply to Clairton Coke Works, the largest coke works in North America. This rule requires the plant to monitor and record benzene levels around the plant and lower their emissions if the benzene exceeds the limits, along with limits on leaks and hazardous air pollutants. These exemptions have been requested, but not yet granted.
"A lot of those chemicals that fall under that category are known human carcinogens," Vogel said. "That has significant risks on nearby populations. And then obviously air pollution has huge impacts on respiratory health, cardiovascular health. You know, everything from neurological development, stroke, diabetes … links between air pollution and human health are very well established. [Those are] real impacts on the people in this region and downwind."
U. S. Steel has requested exemptions from the rules "because they were supported by neither science nor law and would impose significant costs while setting technically unachievable standards," the company said in a statement. "The presidential exemptions provide an additional path to achieving reasonable, effective environmental standards, which we support as part of our commitment to environmental excellence and to being a good neighbor in the communities where we live and work."
Clairton Coke Works is the largest emitter of benzene and other air pollutants in Allegheny County, according to a report from WESA reporting partners, the Allegheny Front. The facility has racked up 12 formal enforcement actions in the past five years and millions of dollars in fines from the Allegheny County Health Department, which is responsible for enforcing federal air quality regulations.
U.S. Steel is under a federal consent decree due to a 2018 fire at the Clairton Coke Works that shut down air quality controls at the plant for months and led to a surge in air pollution in nearby communities. The settlement includes commitments from the company to implement $19.5 million in upgrades to its coke oven gas cleaning facilities and provide $4.5 million for local communities.
If the Trump administration were to grant U.S. Steel the requested exemptions from air quality rules, they would not impact that consent decree or other enforcement actions.
The exemptions give companies more time to upgrade facilities to meet the updated air quality rules. But if companies delay, local communities could feel it in the air, according to Vogel. "What do you do if you're a company thinking about — am I going to comply with this or am I not going to make the investment in cleaner technologies? If you're not, that's going to mean a lot more pollution in this area."