President Donald Trump has given a high-polluting coal products industry a Clean Air Act compliance pass that his appointees at EPA had previously determined wasn’t needed.
In a presidential proclamation issued Friday marking the latest in a series of similar waivers for select companies, Trump again cited national security grounds in granting almost a dozen coke manufacturing plants a two-year extension on fully meeting hazardous air pollutant regulations strengthened last year during the Biden administration.
Coke, a distilled form of coal, serves as crucial blast furnace fuel for the dwindling number of “integrated” mills that turn iron ore into finished steel. Coke manufacturing plants release a host of toxic pollutants that may include benzene, a carcinogen tied to leukemia and other blood disorders.
The proclamation, which says that about 70 percent of domestic steel is made with so-called metallurgical coke, adds that EPA regulations place “severe burdens on the coke production industry and, through its indirect effects, on the viability of our Nation’s critical infrastructure, defense, and national security.”
