Trump’s EPA Said Polluters Could Email Their Way Out of Clean Air Laws. We’re Sending It a Lawsuit.

What’s happening: We are suing to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from handing out permission slips to pollute via an absurdly simple process: Companies just have to email Trump’s EPA.

Why it matters: Since the EPA announced this policy in March, President Trump has already granted blanket exemptions to 68 coal-fired power plants, allowing them to poison nearby communities by releasing more mercury, arsenic, toxic chemicals linked harms to children’s brain development and cancers.

This “email to pollute” announcement is part of a broader attack on clean air protections. Over the last few weeks, the Trump administration and its allies in Congress have eroded decades of progress, weakening the policies and safeguards we rely on to keep our air safe.

For more than 50 years, Earthjustice has used the power of the law to fight for the fundamental right to breathe clean air. Our litigation helped drive the EPA to adopt the air standards we are now suing to protect. We will not stand by as the government lets polluters off the hook.

The 68 coal-fired power plants exempted from mercury and arsenic pollution limits span 23 states. (Source: Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Integrity Project analysis of EPA data)

Just email the White House if you want to pollute more

• Email for permission to pollute: In March, the EPA invited corporations to email the agency to request presidential exemptions from clean air standards, telling them they could cite “national security” or “lack of available technology” as justification. Dozens of coal-fired power plants sent in an email and got the exemption.
• What this means for public health: The coal plants are now free from pollution limits set in the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS. These coal plants can now release more mercury, arsenic, and other heavy metals known to damage children’s brain development, trigger asthma attacks, and cause cancer. Our lawsuit comes one day after the administration proposed to completely repeal the 2024 MATS.
• Health-related costs: By the EPA’s own calculations, prior to granting the exemptions, MATS limits would prevent at least $300 million in health-related costs — from hospital visits, missed workdays, and premature deaths — over a 10-year period.

There is no national security threat

• A political favor dressed up as a national security measure: Many coal power plants already have the technology to meet long-standing pollution standards. There’s no excuse to let dozens of the worst of them off the hook while communities nearby breathe mercury and arsenic.
• A concerning trend: The Trump administration has a pattern of going around our laws under the guise of “national security” or an “emergency.” It is also using the “national security” excuse to stop the imminent retirement of a deadly coal plant in Michigan responsible for 44 premature deaths and 455 asthma attacks every year.

Other attacks on our air from the Trump administration and Congress

• Making traffic pollution worse: In May, Senate Republicans used an unlawful maneuver to overturn strong standards that a dozen states have adopted to protect their residents from tailpipe pollution.
• Freezing funds for EV charging: Despite the need to cut traffic pollution and modernize our transportation system, the Trump administration is withholding billions of dollars that Congress already allocated to build a national network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.
• Letting the top polluters off the hook: Congress recently allowed some 1,800 industrial facilities — including chemical plants, refineries, and pesticide manufactures — reclassify themselves as “minor polluters.” That frees them from the obligation to monitor, control, or report the most dangerous emissions.

How we are fighting for clean air

• Our lawsuits: In addition to our lawsuit against the Trump administration’s “email to pollute” exemption to coal plants, we’ve joined a lawsuit challenging the administration for withholding billions of dollars to build a national network of EV charging stations.
• Our record: This isn’t the first time Trump has tried to dismantle clean air protections. When the first Trump administration delayed critical clean air safeguards, courts found these moves unlawful thanks in part to lawsuits by Earthjustice, workers, and communities.
• Our promise: Everyone has a right to breathe clean air. Every time this administration threatens that right, we will use the power of the law to hold them accountable.