The Center for Biological Diversity has sued the Trump administration in an effort to learn which power plants have sought exemptions to Clean Air Act pollution standards.
In March, the Trump administration invited polluters to submit requests for “presidential exemptions” to nine air pollution rules. Roughly a month later, EPA revealed it would exempt 68 coal-fired power plants from mercury emissions rules, but the agency has not provided any information about other emitters that may have applied for exemptions from those regulations or others.
The lawsuit, filed in the Tucson Division of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, alleges that EPA violated the Freedom of Information Act when it neglected to search its records in response to a request from the CBD for data about which companies have asked for the exemptions.
“Trump has encouraged the nation’s dirtiest polluters to line up for a political handout and put their profits ahead of the health of millions of people,” CBD attorney Ryan Maher said. “The polluter-in-chief is trying to sneak through this blatant law violation by hiding which industrial polluters are cashing in and increasing dangerous air pollution that Americans are forced to breathe.”
