EDF Files Lawsuit for Documents Related to Trump EPA’s Offer to Help Provide Polluter Passes

(Washington, D.C. – April 25, 2025) Environmental Defense Fund filed a lawsuit today to obtain records related to Trump EPA actions to help coal plants and large industrial facilities evade our national protections for toxic air pollution. 

EDF filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after EPA failed to produce the documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  

“The Trump EPA has issued a sweeping invitation to hundreds of large industrial facilities to apply for a pass to pollute, and EPA has not publicly released the requests they received or their responses,” said EDF Senior Attorney Erin Murphy. “These compliance exemptions would allow facilities to emit more pollutants that cause cancer, heart and lung diseases, and brain damage in babies. People have a right to know if their government plans to allow more dangerous, toxic chemicals into the air they breathe.” 

Last month the Trump EPA announced that it is “reconsidering” numerous air pollution standards that are required by the Clean Air Act and currently in effect. That process could lead EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to try to weaken or overturn those vital standards that keep toxic and hazardous pollution out of the air. 

EPA also unveiled a website that offered to help industrial sources apply for special Presidential exemptions from clean air standards while the reconsiderations are underway. The website had step-by-step instructions on how to apply for exemptions from nine major air pollution protections – including the Mercury and Air Toxics update rule, which limits pollution from coal  and oil-fired power plants, and the HON rule, which limits hazardous pollution from more than 200 of the largest and most polluting petrochemical facilities around the country.  

Historically, the use of special Presidential exemptions from EPA protections are rare, subject to a public decision-making process, and issued only if they meet two requirements: that necessary technology to meet the standard is not available, and that there is a national security threat as a result. But on April 8^th, President Trump issued a proclamation purporting to exempt 68 coal-fired power plants from complying with the Mercury and Air Toxics update rule with little public explanation. 

EPA has not made any other information public about what facilities have requested, or gotten, an exemption, although news reports revealed that the American Chemistry Council and American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers submitted a request for a blanket two-year compliance exemption from the HON Rule for more than 200 facilities. 

EDF filed a FOIA request for all records related to the website, and filed a lawsuit today after EPA failed to produce those records or otherwise respond to the FOIA request by the legal deadline. 

EDF has had to sue this Trump administration numerous times after it missed deadlines for FOIA requests. Last month EDF filed a lawsuit against EPA and another against the Department of the Interior, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) for the release of information about the administration’s actions to strike down the Endangerment Finding.