Environmental and Community Groups Sue to Stop Trump Exemptions from Air Pollution Rules for Steel Industry Coke Ovens

Washington, D.C. —

Community, health, and environmental groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the Trump administration’s exemptions that allow coke ovens to keep spewing harmful pollutants. Coke ovens, which superheat coal to produce coke used in the steelmaking process, are a major source of hazardous air pollution that include toxic chemicals and metals like lead, mercury, and benzene.

“For generations, communities surrounding ABC Coke here in Alabama have endured exposure to toxic pollution from one of the dirtiest industrial practices in our country. That’s why we’re taking a stand,” said Jilisa Milton, GASP executive director. “Folks who have not visited metro Birmingham may not understand what being surrounded by polluting industries does to a community’s health and spirit. We’re tired of suffering so dirty industries like ABC Coke can get a pass.”

Earthjustice, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), Environmental Law and Policy Center, and Southern Environmental Law Center and Environmental Integrity Project on behalf of the Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution, Just Transition Northwest Indiana, Hoosier Environmental Council, PennFuture, and Sierra Club filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to stop the administration from allowing coke ovens to bypass critical pollution controls designed to reduce releases of carcinogens and neurotoxic pollutants.

“The Trump administration is delivering another tough blow to local communities,” said Tosh Sagar, senior attorney at Earthjustice. “These unlawful exemptions have real consequences for real people. While people living near these toxic coke oven facilities are breathing in poison everyday, corporate polluters get another pass. Corporate profits should not come at the expense of public health.”

On November 21, 2025, the Trump administration granted a two-year exemption for all 11 coke oven facilities nationwide, claiming the 2024 Coke Oven Rule requires emissions-control technologies that “do not yet exist in a commercially demonstrated or cost-effective form. However, just weeks ago, Trump’s own EPA found the updated requirements did not pose “significant immediate compliance challenges” for facilities. President Trump has now exempted more than 180 facilities across six industries.

In 2024, EPA finalized long overdue revisions to Clean Air Act rules applying to coke ovens facilities across the country. The 2024 Coke Ovens Rule introduced a fenceline monitoring requirement, stricter limits on leaks from coke oven battery doors, lids, and offtakes, and new emissions standards for several hazardous air pollutants. The original compliance deadlines were staggered between July 2025 and January 2026.

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“We rise in defiance of the Trump administration’s destructive agenda to continually sacrifice our steel-impacted communities, like Lake County, Indiana,” said Ashley Williams, executive director at Just Transition Northwest Indiana. “Every day, we endure some of the worst pollution on the planet from coke ovens. We deserve the right to breathe clean air, and we won’t stop mobilizing to fight these presidential exemptions.”

“The Pennsylvania communities that are forced to breathe toxic air pollution from facilities like U.S Steel’s Clairton Coke Works should not have to wait two more years for these necessary and available pollution controls,” said Abigail M. Jones, PennFuture vice president of Legal and Policy. “We will not stand idly by while the Trump administration sacrifices our communities in favor of toxic industries that have reaped the benefits of lax regulations for too long.”

“The Trump administration continues the same pattern of giving a free pass to the worst polluters,” said Sarah Buckley, senior attorney at NRDC. “Every exemption has real consequences on people’s health and only leads to dirtier air and less transparency.”

“We won’t stand by and watch this administration placate dirty, extractive industries at the expense of local communities like Tarrant, Alabama” said Jaclyn Brass, a staff attorney in the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Alabama office. “It is both unconscionable and unlawful to hand coke ovens a free pass from complying with achievable, common-sense pollution controls. Who would want to live next to a plant emitting toxic chemicals without adequate safety controls?”

“Communities living near steel industry coke ovens advocated for many years for common-sense federal regulations to protect them from hazardous air pollution,” said Haley Lewis, senior attorney at Environmental Integrity Project. “EPA’s 2024 rule requiring air monitoring and cleanup of dangerous levels of pollution from coke ovens would have provided meaningful improvements, had President Trump not granted an exemption last month. This exemption should be thrown out by the courts for the sake of the health of all the workers and families living near the industry.”

“This latest proclamation for coke ovens continues the Trump administration’s year-long practice of undermining industry’s compliance with toxic air pollutant standards by issuing meritless exemptions and delays,” said Brian Lynk, a senior attorney at the Environmental Law & Policy Center. “The communities who live with these plants and depend on clean and healthy air, in Northwest Indiana and around the country, deserve better.”