Community, Health and Environmental Groups Sue to Stop President Trump’s Unlawful Toxic Air Pollution Exemptions

(WASHINGTON – Oct. 22, 2025) – Community, health and environmental groups sued the Trump administration today to stop an executive action that would unlawfully exempt 50 of the country’s most toxic chemical manufacturing plants from protections that guard people against dangerous cancer-causing air pollutants, including ethylene oxide and chloroprene.

“We’ve fought for decades to close loopholes and get real checks on chemical leaks. These standards target the dangerous chemicals that create a huge cancer risk in communities like Mossville, Louisiana and others throughout the country,” said Michele Roberts, National Coordinator of EJHA. “Delaying them is a policy choice with a human cost, measured in diagnoses, not dollars. The Clean Air Act doesn’t allow a president to waive our human right to health or hand polluters a free pass without evidence.” 

The lawsuit challenges the Trump administration’s efforts to exempt companies from EPA’s Hazardous Organic National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, known as the HON Rule, by delaying compliance by two years beyond the current 2026 and 2027 deadlines. This administration’s unlawful and unprecedented use of these exemptions endangers the health of communities in 13 states, including Texas, Louisiana, Illinois and Kentucky.

“Community leaders in this movement have fought for protections like this for more than 30 years. Looking back across generations that are not with us today, we remember family, friends, and neighbors who we lost as a result of highly hazardous pollutants. We need to honor the time, lives, and history invested by everyone before us, from the signing of the Clean Air Act to the creation of HON,” said Ana Parras, Co-Director of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services. “It is our collective responsibility to ensure consistent and continuous enforcement of federal laws and protections for our communities. The HON Rule lay the groundwork for future generations to have a healthier and cleaner future. Environmental justice is not isolated or short-lived, but part of a larger, ongoing movement and these exemptions take away from our meaningful progress.”

EPA has estimated the updated protections in the 2024 HON Rule would cut toxic emissions from the chemical manufacturing industry by more than 6,200 tons per year and reduce air toxics-related cancer risks near these facilities by approximately 96 percent. 

“President Trump is claiming the authority, with the stroke of his pen, to mass exempt industrial polluters from basic measures to keep families safe from breathing in carcinogens,” said Sarah Buckley, senior attorney with NRDC.  “The exempted chemical plants are some of the largest drivers of cancer risk in the country. This case is about stopping unlawful exemptions that will cost real people their health.” 

On March 12, 2025, the Trump EPA said it would pursue a two-year exemption from compliance with the regulations, including monitoring for these chemicals at the fenceline of these plants. The organizations challenging those exemptions in court are NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Integrity Project and Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA). Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services, Louisiana Environmental Action Network, Concerned Citizens of St. John, RISE St. James Louisiana, Sierra Club and Air Alliance Houston are represented by Earthjustice in the lawsuit. 

“We know that these facilities emit even more cancer-causing pollution than EPA assumed, so the fenceline monitoring is extremely important,” said Abel Russ, senior attorney at the Environmental Integrity Project. “People living in the shadow of these facilities deserve to know what they are breathing, and how much.”

“These unlawful presidential exemptions are one of the clearest examples of who matters to the Trump administration and who doesn’t,” said Adam Kron, senior attorney with Earthjustice. “Some of the wealthiest and most toxic chemical companies have received a free pass to put off long-needed controls and health protections, while community members in 13 states have to wait another two years while these facilities emit hundreds of tons of toxic and cancer-causing pollutants.” 

The 2024 HON Rule requires stronger controls and fenceline monitoring for carcinogens and other toxic air pollutants, including ethylene oxide, chloroprene, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, ethylene dichloride, and vinyl chloride – all chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer, respiratory issues, liver damage and other serious health problems.

“The Trump administration is illegally offering chemical plants a free pass to pollute toxics,” said Rosalie Winn, EDF’s Senior Director and Lead Counsel, Methane and Clean Air. “These exemptions will put families living near some of the country’s worst industrial polluters directly in harm’s way, increasing their risks of cancer and other diseases. We’ll continue to vigorously oppose these unlawful actions so communities on the frontlines of the chemical industry can breathe safer air.”

President Trump’s proclamation invokes a never-before-used Clean Air Act provision to extend all HON compliance deadlines by two years for the listed facilities, claiming the technology is “not available” and that exemptions serve national security. The suit contends those assertions are baseless – many of the required controls and practices are already in use – and that the proclamation unlawfully strips communities of protections Congress required and EPA finalized after extensive scientific review and public input.