Environmental groups are intensifying their legal offensive against the Trump administration‘s extraordinary use of Clean Air Act exemptions for select industries.
President Donald Trump “grossly exceeded the bounds of his statutory authority” last summer in awarding two-year compliance extensions to eight mills that make the low-grade iron ore known as taconite, the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy alleged in a lawsuit filed Monday.
The center, joined by the Natural Resources Defense Council, wants a judge to void the extensions and order EPA to begin enforcement of stricter Biden-era regulations on the mills’ releases of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants. The extensions are “a pretext” to shield the industry from meeting the regulations “while EPA works administratively to repeal those critical protections,” the two challengers write.
The suit came days after NRDC and several other groups challenged Trump’s use of similar passes for several dozen medical device sterilization plants that use ethylene oxide, a potent carcinogen. Environmental advocates are also contesting the compliance extensions granted to almost 70 coal-fired power plants and some 50 chemical manufacturing and refining operations.
