WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has granted an additional round of regulatory relief from certain U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emissions requirements, issuing a proclamation that temporarily exempts specified chemical manufacturing facilities from compliance with parts of a Biden-era air pollution rule that the administration says could threaten industries tied to national security.
The White House said the proclamation, signed on July 13, grants a two-year exemption for designated stationary sources covered by the EPA's 2024 Hazardous Organic National Emission Standards (HON) rule. According to the administration, the affected facilities manufacture chemicals used in semiconductor production, sterile medical equipment, advanced manufacturing and defense-related supply chains.
The proclamation allows eligible facilities to continue operating under the emissions requirements that applied before the 2024 rule while the exemption remains in effect. President Trump invoked authority under Section 112(i)(4) of the Clean Air Act, which permits temporary exemptions from certain hazardous air pollutant standards when the president determines that compliance technology is unavailable and that an exemption is in the national security interest.
In the proclamation, the administration said commercially viable technology needed to meet the compliance deadlines was not yet available for the affected sources. The White House argued that immediate compliance could disrupt production of chemicals considered important for critical infrastructure, health care, defense systems and domestic manufacturing.
The latest action follows a series of regulatory exemptions and rollbacks pursued by the Trump administration since returning to office. Administration officials have said the broader effort is intended to reduce regulatory costs, strengthen domestic manufacturing and preserve industrial capacity while agencies reconsider or revise environmental rules adopted during the previous administration.
Environmental organizations have broadly criticized the administration's deregulatory agenda, arguing that delaying implementation of stricter emissions standards could increase pollution and postpone public health benefits expected under the EPA's original rule. Industry groups, meanwhile, have argued that additional time is needed to develop and deploy technologies capable of meeting the standards without disrupting production.
The EPA's 2024 HON rule established tighter emissions controls for synthetic organic chemical manufacturing facilities as part of the agency's effort to reduce releases of hazardous air pollutants. Under the president's proclamation, the listed facilities receive a two-year extension of the relevant compliance deadlines while remaining subject to the regulatory requirements that were in place before the Biden-era revisions.
