In March, the Trump administration created a novel way for companies to potentially avoid complying with environmental rules: Simply send an email to the Environmental Protection Agency and request an exemption.
In response, representatives of at least 15 coal-burning power plants, four steel mills, four chemical facilities and two mines wrote emails to the E.P.A. this spring, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.
All 15 coal plants were ultimately exempted from requirements to curb several hazardous air pollutants, including mercury, a neurotoxin that can cause developmental problems in infants and children. All four chemical facilities were exempted from restrictions on other harmful air pollutants, including ethylene oxide, a gas linked to several types of cancer.
Those email exemptions were part of a broader wave of more than 100 granted so far by the Trump administration to facilities across the country, including oil refineries and sites that process a type of iron ore. The exemptions apply to rules that were set to take effect in the coming years.
The Sierra Club, an environmental group, obtained the E.P.A. documents by filing a Freedom of Information Act request. Patrick Drupp, the group’s director of climate policy, said in an interview that “communities have a right to know if coal plants, chemical plants or steel plants are actively trying to get around regulations that are designed to protect those communities.”
Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, said in an email: “President Trump promised to unleash American energy to provide grid stability, lower energy costs for American families, and protect our economic and national security interests. These exemptions simply give facilities more time to abide by environmental standards.”
Under an obscure section of the Clean Air Act, the president can temporarily exempt industrial facilities from new rules if their continued operation is in the interest of national security and if the technology required to comply is not widely available. For example, days before leaving office, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. issued a memorandum that allowed medical sterilization facilities to seek exemptions from limits on ethylene oxide emissions. Mr. Biden wrote that the move would prevent a “serious disruption” to the supply of drugs and medical devices.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, the country’s largest federally owned utility, successfully sought two-year exemptions from the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for three coal plants in Tennessee and one coal plant in Kentucky, according to the documents obtained by the Sierra Club. The four plants will have until 2028, rather than 2026, to start complying with the Biden administration’s stricter mercury rule.
“T.V.A.’s four coal plants remain a critical part of our operating fleet,” Scott Brooks, a spokesman for the utility, wrote in an email. “This exemption will allow T.V.A. to keep running these assets in a cost-effective way and help ensure reliability for our 10 million customers.”
Mr. Brooks said the four facilities would continue to comply with other “previous and current environmental standards.”
Alabama Power’s James H. Miller Jr. Electric Generating Plant in Jefferson, Ala., also successfully sought an exemption from the stricter mercury rule. The plant was the nation’s largest emitter of the greenhouse gases that are driving climate change in 2023, the latest year for which E.P.A. data is available. (While the mercury rule does not directly require utilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it could have that effect indirectly by making coal plants too costly to operate.)
Representatives for Southern Company, the parent company of Alabama Power, did not respond to a request for comment.
The documents also show that Eastman Chemical Company, a global chemical manufacturer, requested and received an exemption from the limits on ethylene oxide emissions for its facility in Longview, Texas. The plant released 155,483 pounds of ethylene oxide between 2008 and 2018, making it the country’s fourth-largest emitter of the gas, according to Air Alliance Houston, an environmental group.
Six East Texas residents recently sued Eastman over these emissions, accusing the company of knowingly exposing the surrounding community to a carcinogen. The lawsuit said that four of the plaintiffs had developed breast cancer after years of living near the plant and “unknowingly inhaling” ethylene oxide, which is colorless and odorless, “on a routine and continuous basis.”
Eastman did not respond to a request for comment for this article. Last week, in response to questions about the lawsuit from a local outlet, News Channel 11, the company said in a statement: “We empathize with these individuals and anyone facing a cancer diagnosis. However, as this is pending litigation, we are unable to comment further.”
U.S. Steel, which was acquired by Japan’s Nippon Steel last month, had mixed results in its quest for regulatory relief. The company requested and received exemptions for two facilities in Minnesota that produce taconite iron ore, which is used to make steel. But of the four steel mills for which it sought exemptions, only one facility, in Indiana, was granted a reprieve.
“Seeking the presidential exemptions reflects no change to U. S. Steel’s original position that it supports revisions to regulations that are within E.P.A.’s statutory authority, based on sound science, and are technically feasible,” Amanda Malkowski, a spokeswoman for U.S. Steel, said in an email. She added that the exemptions for the taconite iron ore facilities were “fair, reasonable and necessary. ”
While the documents show that Citgo Petroleum Corporation and Phillips 66 requested exemptions for some oil refineries, they do not reveal the names of the facilities. In a proclamation this month, Mr. Trump granted each company exemptions for three refineries.
The Institute for Energy Research, a free-market organization that supports fossil fuels, praised the president for issuing the exemptions while urging the E.P.A. to repeal the underlying rules.
“Given that the current regulations are unworkable and reliant on nonexistent technologies, the E.P.A. should move swiftly to revoke or revise them through proper administrative channels,” the organization wrote in a blog post on Monday.
A coalition of environmental groups last month sued the Trump administration over its decision to exempt dozens of coal plants from the mercury rule. The suit accused the administration of failing to demonstrate that the rule would force the plants to close down, or that their closure would pose a national security threat.
Maxine Joselow reports on climate policy for The Times.
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