Trump Let Polluters Email Their Way Out of Clean Air Law
NEWS & RESEARCH
During his second term, President Trump has granted exemptions to more than 100 fossil fuel companies, allowing them to bypass regulations limiting their toxic emissions—with companies able to request an exemption simply by emailing the EPA. The EPA has also moved to roll back 31 environmental regulations covering air and water quality, vehicle emissions, smog, and greenhouse gases. Among them are weakened restrictions on coal-burning power plants, which emit mercury, a potent neurotoxin with well-documented health consequences. In 2025, mercury emissions from coal plants rose for the first time in years. Communities living near these plants will have little recourse: the EPA has simultaneously eliminated all of its environmental justice offices, which for decades worked to protect low-income and minority communities disproportionately burdened by industrial pollution.
SOURCES: New York Times | New York Times | The Guardian | McGuireWoods | Pillsbury Law | PBS News | Eos
ANALYSIS & OPINION
Public health and environmental advocates warn that the EPA's rollbacks put communities at greater risk for heart and lung disease, cancer, asthma attacks, and premature death, with particular harm to fetuses and children from neurological toxins like mercury. They argue the administration is putting fossil fuel interests ahead of public health so that, as the Sierra Club put it, "their coal buddies can make a few more bucks." The legality of the exemptions is also in question: Trump invoked a narrow, never-before-used Clean Air Act provision that permits presidential exemptions only when compliance technology is unavailable or when an exemption serves national security interests. But many of the exempted plants had already been on track to meet existing standards and critics say neither justification holds up—calling the move an illegal abuse of executive power.
SOURCES: EarthJustice | Environmental Defense Fund | Natural Resources Defense Council | Sierra Club
HOW TO FIX IT
Federal action:
Pass the No Passes for Polluters Act, which would close the Clean Air Act loophole Trump exploited to exempt industrial polluters—stripping future presidents of the power to grant such exemptions unilaterally and requiring two-thirds congressional approval instead.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse launched an investigation into 17 coal companies that received presidential exemptions from Clean Air Act mercury rules, demanding documents and answers about whether the exemptions were granted on legitimate statutory grounds or as political favors to industry. Whitehouse cannot compel compliance—but the investigation can generate a public record.
Litigation:
Air Alliance Houston et al. v. Trump: Environmental groups sued the administration over its decision to exempt coal-fired power plants from the pollution limits set in the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). The suit accused Trump of misusing the Clean Air Act, saying he failed to demonstrate that the emissions rule would force the plants to close down, or that their closure would pose a national security threat.
Air Alliance Houston et al. v. EPA: The same coalition also challenged the EPA’s later repeal of MATS, saying that the repeal “violates the Clean Air Act, ignores the scientific record, and abandons safeguards that protect communities living near coal plants.”
TEJAS v. Trump: Environmental groups also challenged Trump's decision to exempt 50 chemical manufacturers from the Hazardous Organic National Emission Standards (HON Rule), which limits exposure to carcinogens and toxins released in the production of plastics, rubber, and fuel additives.
American Public Health Association, et al. v. EPA: Another coalition challenged the administration's rescission of the Endangerment Finding, which was the agency’s formal determination that greenhouse gases endanger public health and which gave the EPA the legal foundation to regulate emissions. The suit argues that the EPA revoked the finding without evaluating the evidence or offering any scientific rebuttal.
EDF v. EPA: The Environmental Defense Fund filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request—a legal mechanism that compels federal agencies to disclose public records—seeking the full administrative paper trail of the exemptions-by-email program. When EPA missed its legal deadline to respond, EDF sued to force disclosure. Records obtained through the litigation now power the EDF's Pollution Pass Map, tracking more than 500 facilities invited to seek exemptions. The Center for Biological Diversity also filed a similar case.
Legislation: S.4404 - No Passes for Polluters Act of 2026
