New Map Shows Hundreds of Facilities Across the U.S. That Might Get a Pollution Pass from Trump Administration

(Washington, D.C. – April 30, 2025) A coalition of health, community, and environmental groups today released a new map showing more than 500 facilities that emit toxic or hazardous air pollution and that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin invited to apply for Presidential exemptions from air pollution limits.

The map includes industrial sources – such as coal-fired power plants, chemical manufacturers, sterilizers, and other toxic-emitting facilities – covered by nine different air toxics standards that protect people from pollution that can cause brain damage in young children, cancer, and severe heart and lung disease. It includes publicly reported information about which facilities, or their representatives, have requested or been granted potential exemptions and will be updated as more information becomes available.

People using the map can input their home address to see which facilities are near them. They can also filter by facility type, Congressional District or county, see which facilities are located near public schools, and click on links to contact EPA.

The map was produced by Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Integrity Project and released along with allies at Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, California Communities Against Toxics, Clean Air Council, Clean Air Laredo Coalition, Concerned Citizens of St. John, Earthjustice, Environmental Law & Policy Center, Just Transition Northwest Indiana, Moms Clean Air Force, Rise St. James, Sierra Club, Southern Environmental Law Center and Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services. The groups also recently released a list of the facilities that could potentially be exempted from pollution limits and health protections. You can read more about that and see reaction from the groups here. 

The groups have since updated that list with additional information on facilities or their representatives that have requested or received potential exemptions, and have created the map to make it easier for people to see the scope of the problem and get more information. (If you prefer to see the data in list form, it’s available here, including the data sources that were used in developing the map and underlying analysis.)

On March 24^th, Administrator Zeldin launched a website inviting the 500-plus industrial sources to seek two-year extensions to their deadlines to comply with critical air toxics standards. The website encouraged the “regulated community” to apply for special Presidential exemptions from standards that protect people from toxic and hazardous air pollution and included step-by-step instructions on how to request one. 

Then on April 8^th, President Trump issued a proclamation that stated he would exempt 68 coal-fired power plants from complying with one of the nine standards, the Mercury and Air Toxics update rule, with little public explanation. 

News reports have revealed that the American Chemistry Council and American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers submitted a request for a blanket two-year compliance exemption for more than 200 chemical manufacturing facilities from EPA’s HON Rule, which limits emissions of toxic pollutants including ethylene oxide and chloroprene and requires fenceline monitoring for six priority chemicals of concern. 

EPA has not made any information public about what facilities have requested an exemption. EDF filed a FOIA request for all records related to the website, and then filed a lawsuit on Friday after EPA failed to produce those records or otherwise respond to the FOIA request by the legal deadline. (Read more about the lawsuit here).