A new lawsuit is challenging the Trump administration’s removal of environmental justice maps and datasets.
Under orders from President Donald Trump, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin is simultaneously moving to rescind Biden-era rules meant to protect the public from toxic pollution while inviting hundreds of petrochemical manufacturers and the dirtiest coal-burning power plants to apply for sweeping “presidential exemptions” from meeting updated pollution limits for up to two years, after which they can be renewed.
Handing out regulatory exemptions to polluters provides the Trump EPA time to dismantle years of regulatory work toward limiting emissions of hazardous toxins such as mercury and cancer-causing benzene before private companies face requirements to invest in pollution controls that protect public health.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has made it harder for regulators, policy makers, advocacy groups and residents living in the shadow of industry to track health threats from pollution and examine local impacts of energy, infrastructure and disaster relief policies by deleting key datasets and interactive maps from federal agency websites.
“No joke, they are trying to erase the [connection] between pollution and its outcomes on the ground,” said Jane Williams, executive director of the California Communities Against Toxics (CCAT), in an interview. “It’s a very concerted effort by big industry, and it’s not just at EPA, it’s at the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services too.”
“With this invitation to apply for exemptions, they have opened it up in a way where you can tell that they will be rubber stamping whatever comes their way,” Smith said.