{"id":252431,"date":"2025-10-26T09:51:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T09:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/252431\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T09:51:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T09:51:32","slug":"gulf-south-residents-and-green-groups-sue-trump-and-epa-over-toxic-air-pollution-exemptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/252431\/","title":{"rendered":"Gulf South Residents and Green Groups Sue Trump and EPA Over Toxic Air Pollution Exemptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frontline community groups teamed up with national environmental organizations Wednesday to sue the Trump administration for letting chemical manufacturing plants off the hook for toxic, carcinogenic air pollution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit<\/a> targets an executive action<\/a> from July that gave 50 plants a two-year exemption from a Biden-era U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule that tightened restrictions on cancer-causing air toxics like ethylene oxide and chloroprene. After years of fierce grassroots advocacy from communities harmed by chemical plants, the EPA enacted the 2024 HON rule\u2014Hazardous Organic NESHAP (National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants)\u2014and projected that it would reduce air pollution-related risks for communities living near these facilities by about 96 percent while cutting the industry\u2019s emissions by more than 6,200 tons annually.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs\u2014which include Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Concerned Citizens of St. John and RISE St. James\u2014say President Donald Trump\u2019s exemption is unlawful and will increase health risks for communities in Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Illinois and other states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor him to bring it back two more years, that means two more years of toxic pollution, two more years of us getting sick,\u201d said Sharon Lavigne, founder and CEO of the grassroots Louisiana group RISE St. James and a leading environmental justice activist.<\/p>\n

The goal of the lawsuit is both to protect the pollution restrictions in the HON rule and to show the Trump administration that it can\u2019t make unilateral decisions to overturn progress won through the democratic process, said NRDC senior attorney Sarah Buckley.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis exemption is standing in the way of really crucial health protections for 50 communities across the country,\u201d Buckley said. \u201cWe can\u2019t just let this abuse of power, to sweep these protections away with the stroke of a pen, go unchecked.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EPA declined to comment on ongoing litigation.<\/p>\n

The proclamation gave exemptions to 50 out of 217 total facilities, most of them in the Gulf South: 17 out of the 80 such facilities in Texas and 18 of the 49 in Louisiana, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President used his lawful authority to grant these exemptions, which simply give facilities more time to abide by environmental standards,\u201d said White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers in an emailed statement. \u201cContrary to the lies peddled by far-left, Climate activists, the facts remain: US air quality is among the best of industrialized countries and our framework for environmental protection remains the gold standard across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly half<\/a> of Americans are stuck with unhealthy levels of air pollution, and the trend is getting worse, according to the American Lung Association, especially in communities of color. The Trump administration is rapidly reversing environmental protections<\/a>, particularly those focused on addressing the disproportionate burden faced by people of color and low-income communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Residents of Cancer Alley\u2014an 85-mile stretch of Louisiana where the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry is heavily concentrated in Black and low-income neighborhoods\u2014have been dealing with hazardous pollutants and high cancer rates for years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ethylene oxide, one of those pollutants, has been linked to brain and lung tumors, lymphoma, leukemia, breast cancer, neurological disorders, miscarriages and reproductive and developmental harm. Chloroprene can increase risk of liver cancer, depress the central nervous system and damage kidneys and lungs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AnAn aerial view of the Denka Performance Elastomer plant near LaPlace in Louisiana\u2019s \u201cCancer Alley.\u201d Credit: Lee Hedgepeth\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n

Last year, researchers at Johns Hopkins University found<\/a> levels of ethylene oxide more than 1,000 times higher than what\u2019s considered safe across Cancer Alley.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robert Taylor lives in Reserve, Louisiana, near two chemical facilities<\/a> on the exemption list, in a predominantly Black community with high levels of both ethylene oxide and chloroprene pollution and with a cancer risk in the 99th percentile for the country, according<\/a> to the Environmental Defense Fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2014co-founder of Concerned Citizens of St. John<\/a>\u2014fought for the HON rule to protect frontline communities like his across the country. He hopes the lawsuit will reverse the Trump administration\u2019s exemptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is outrageous that here now in the 21st century we live this horribly,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cWe call this a free country, but these people can come here in our community, sit these horrible plants right in the middle of our communities, and poison and kill us.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story is funded by readers like you.<\/p>\n

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Trump\u2019s proclamation hinged on a provision in the Clean Air Act that plaintiffs say was never used before this administration that allows the president to exempt a source from a pollution standard in the interest of national security or if the technology needed to implement the standard isn\u2019t available.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The proclamation did not include any facility-specific analysis explaining how either of those prerequisites applied and the lawsuit argues that the requirements have not been met, given that air pollution control technology is widely available in the chemical manufacturing industry, and that in many cases, the 2024 rule would simply require facilities to increase use of technologies they were already using. The lawsuit argues that the proclamation \u201cexceeds the President\u2019s lawful authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Typically, the government would have 60 days to respond to the complaint. But the government shutdown might lengthen the process, Buckley said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"EnvironmentalEnvironmental justice advocate Sharon Lavigne is the founder and CEO of the grassroots Louisiana group RISE St. James. Credit: Lee Hedgepeth\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n

For Lavigne, who has lost family and friends to cancer, this fight is personal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have so many people being diagnosed with cancer, so many people that are dying of cancer, we have funerals just about every week because of the pollution,\u201d Lavigne said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said she hopes the lawsuit will give her community respite.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking to see my community die,\u201d Lavigne said. \u201cAnd it don\u2019t have to be, if these politicians will stop bowing down to industry, \u2026 if people that we vote in office would think about our best interest and not their pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Correction: This story was updated Oct. 23, 2025, to correct the number of total facilities in Texas and Louisiana covered by the HON rule. The Environmental Defense Fund corrected its original figures to 80 in Texas, rather than 78, and 49 in Louisiana, rather than 40.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAbout This Story<\/p>\n

Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n

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Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.<\/p>\n

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Thank you,<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Keerti<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tKeerti Gopal\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tReporter, Health and Justice<\/p>\n

Keerti Gopal covers intersections between climate change, public health and environmental justice at Inside Climate News. Previously, she covered climate activism and movement repression. She is a National Geographic Explorer and has received fellowships from Fulbright, the Solutions Journalism Network, The Lever, and the National Press Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frontline community groups teamed up with national environmental organizations Wednesday to sue the Trump administration for letting chemical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-252431","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}