President Donald Trump on Friday exempted an Arizona copper smelter from Biden-era air toxics standards in another move by the administration to claw back Clean Air Act pollution limits.
Trump signed a proclamation that grants Freeport-McMoRan’s smelter about 90 miles east of Phoenix a two-year reprieve from newly updated air toxics regulations that were finalized last year for pollutants like lead, arsenic, mercury and dioxins.
The smelter is one of three in the U.S. that refines copper used in wiring, EVs and electronics, only two of which are operating.
The Trump White House argued Friday that the Biden-era standards have “already strained domestic industry risks accelerating further closures, weakening the Nation’s industrial base, undermining mineral independence, and increasing reliance on foreign-controlled processing capacity.”
