Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution, et al. v. Trump, et al.

On November 21, 2025, President Trump issued a proclamation exempting 11 coke oven facilities—the entirety of the industry—from the 2024 updated National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Coke Ovens (coke ovens rule). These standards protect communities living and working near coke plants from exposure to toxic air pollutants—including benzene and other volatile organic hazardous air pollutants, toxic metals like mercury, and acid gases—that are released when these facilities produce “coke,” an input for steelmaking. Exposure to these hazardous air pollutants is known to cause a range of health issues, including cancer, anemia, nervous system damage, suppression of immune system, and leukemia. 

President Trump’s proclamation unilaterally exempts all coke oven facilities in the industry. Those facilities—located in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—now have a free pass to continue to pollute and put communities at risk for an additional two years. The effect of these exemptions is particularly devastating for already overburdened communities. In its 2024 final rule, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that cancer risk from coke oven facilities is highest for Black and low-income populations. 

To exempt these facilities, the Trump administration exploited a narrow and, until this year, never-before-used provision of the Clean Air Act. Section 112(i)(4) of the act provides authority to exempt sources from a hazardous air pollutant standard if the president determines that the technology to implement the rule is “not available” and that an exemption is in the national security interests of the United States. But the Trump proclamation does not provide any evidence that the technology is not available—because it is. In finalizing the coke ovens rule, the EPA concluded that the changes were modest and achievable, mostly through work practices, and that facilities would be able to comply with these limits without any new or additional controls. In fact, just weeks before the proclamation, the EPA itself issued a notice stating that the agency “does not believe that the currently available information supports a conclusion that regulated parties would face significant immediate compliance challenges meeting [the coke ovens rule standards].”  

NOTE: This map is best viewed on a desktop/laptop/tablet; on mobile, the map is best viewed in Chrome.

President Trump’s abuse of Section 112(i)(4) is not just limited to coke oven facilities. In April and July, he exempted nearly one-third of coal-fired power plants from mercury and air toxics standards, nearly one-quarter of chemical manufacturers from hazardous air pollution standards, nearly half of all commercial medical sterilizers from ethylene oxide standards, and the entire taconite iron-ore processing industry from mercury standards.   

President Trump’s exemptions of coke ovens from regulations of hazardous air pollutants not only sacrifices the health of communities, but they are also illegal and undemocratic. Never before has a president claimed the authority to mass exempt from EPA regulations—rules issued only a year ago after extensive scientific and technical review and full public notice and comment.   

NRDC and our partners—Environmental Integrity Project, Environmental Law & Policy Center, Clean Air Council, the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of the Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution, and Earthjustice on behalf of Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, Hoosier Environmental Council, Just Transition Northwest Indiana, and Sierra Club—have filed suit in the District Court of the District of Columbia to challenge this ultra vires and illegal exemption.