Trump administration dismantles pollution protections and deletes public data as EPA grants sweeping exemptions to industry

Environmental groups sue over deletion of climate and justice tools while polluters receive fast-tracked exemptions from EPA oversight.

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As the Trump administration intensifies its deregulation of environmental protections, watchdog groups and public health advocates are warning of far-reaching consequences for communities overburdened by industrial pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the leadership of Administrator Lee Zeldin, is simultaneously rolling back Biden-era regulations and inviting hundreds of polluting facilities to apply for what it calls “presidential exemptions” from critical pollution limits. At the same time, the administration is systematically removing public access to government databases and mapping tools that have long been used to monitor environmental risks and support vulnerable communities.

The EPA’s dual-track strategy, critics argue, marks a deliberate effort to both relax oversight for major polluters and erase the evidence of environmental injustice. While previous efforts under Trump were often marked by chaos and public backlash, environmental advocates say the current wave of rollbacks is more methodical—and more dangerous.

Under orders from President Donald Trump, the EPA has established a process for fossil fuel and petrochemical companies to bypass environmental regulations for two years at a time, with the option for renewal. These exemptions apply to rules limiting emissions of toxic pollutants including mercury and benzene, standards for car and truck emissions, and a recently adopted rule aimed at eliminating lead from drinking water systems. Historically, such exemptions were rare and granted only in cases where pollution control technology was unavailable or where compliance would jeopardize national security.

“This exemption is really meant for one-off circumstances,” said Grace Smith, a senior attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund, in an interview with the group’s publication Vital Signs.

Now, exemptions appear to be part of a broader plan. The EPA’s new webpage, which some critics have dubbed the “polluters’ portal,” provides step-by-step instructions for applying for waivers from nine major pollution protections. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, at least 530 industrial facilities—including some of the country’s oldest and dirtiest coal-burning power plants—are eligible to apply. On April 8, Trump signed a “presidential proclamation” exempting nearly 70 of these plants from rules requiring reductions in pollutants such as mercury, arsenic, benzene, and fine particulate matter.

Meanwhile, the administration has made it significantly harder for regulators, community organizations, and researchers to track environmental health threats. Over the past three months, the EPA has deleted several public-facing datasets and interactive webtools that were critical to monitoring pollution impacts on low-income and historically marginalized communities. Among the tools taken offline is EJScreen, the EPA’s flagship environmental justice mapping tool, and the Council on Environmental Quality’s Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool (CEJST).

“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). “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.”

On April 14, multiple advocacy groups, including the Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Environmental Integrity Project, filed a federal lawsuit to challenge the removal of the tools. The suit, filed by Public Citizen and the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program, claims that the administration failed to follow laws requiring agencies to notify the public before removing essential sources of information.

“Removing government datasets is tantamount to theft,” said Gretchen Goldman, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a statement. “From vital information for communities about their exposure to harmful pollution, to data that help local governments build resilience to extreme weather events, the public deserves access to federal datasets.”

Since 2015, EJScreen has played a crucial role in revealing patterns of environmental racism and prioritizing enforcement efforts in vulnerable areas. It was widely used to support grant applications, legal action, and policy interventions. CEJST, introduced under President Joe Biden as part of the Justice40 initiative, was designed to ensure that at least 40 percent of federal climate investments benefited disadvantaged communities. Both tools were cited by researchers, journalists, and local leaders across the country.

The lawsuit also identifies the deletion of other tools, including the Department of Energy’s Low-Income Energy Affordability Data Tool, the Community Benefits Plan Map, the Department of Transportation’s Equitable Transportation Community Explorer, and FEMA’s Future Risk Index. These tools enabled public scrutiny of disparities in disaster risk, energy affordability, and infrastructure access.

“This isn’t controversial stuff. These are tools that present factual information in a way that allows policy makers to refer to them quickly, for communities to understand and engage with information,” said Zach Shelley, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group. “Without this information, it’s going to be harder for people to engage with their government and for policy makers to understand the consequence their actions will have.”

In Cancer Alley—a region along the Mississippi River in Louisiana densely packed with petrochemical plants—residents have long used these tools to advocate for health protections. The EPA under Biden filed a landmark civil rights lawsuit in 2023 against the Denka chemical plant in Reserve, Louisiana, alleging that its emissions of ethylene oxide posed an unacceptable cancer risk to the surrounding majority-Black community and nearby elementary school. That lawsuit was dropped last month by the Trump administration.

“How does everything that happened in the last 100 days affect those kids who go to that school?” Williams asked. She also expressed concern that the local school board, which voted to relocate the school, may now struggle to secure the necessary funding as the Trump administration pushes to dismantle the Department of Education.

The American Chemistry Council and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, two major industry groups, are reportedly seeking a blanket exemption for more than 200 facilities from recently adopted rules targeting emissions of ethylene oxide and chloroprene—chemicals linked to increased cancer risk. Activists fought for years to establish these standards, which were finalized by the EPA in 2024.

In some areas of Cancer Alley, the risk of developing cancer is 47 times higher than what the EPA considers acceptable, according to an investigation by ProPublica. The impact is disproportionately felt by Black communities whose presence in these industrial corridors dates back to the post-slavery Reconstruction era.

As watchdog groups attempt to maintain public access to environmental data, they face significant challenges. Some groups have recreated parts of EJScreen using archived information, but the data is already becoming outdated and harder to access.

“Those organizations that are out there, working to stand up this data—it’s a valiant and important effort,” said Darya Minovi, a senior analyst at the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “But also, it should not be the work of nonprofits and outside organizations to do the government’s job.”

Kameron Kerger, a systems designer with the Environmental Policy Innovation Center and former developer of CEJST, said the loss of federal data will create a lasting void. “The data is going to stop at 2025,” Kerger said. “We’re not going to understand the impact of Justice40 and the Inflation Reduction Act, which was a big investment in fighting against climate change. We won’t be able to learn because the data will be frozen and even if we start up in the future, there will just be a huge gap.”

EPA officials declined to comment on the pending litigation but issued a statement noting that the agency is “working to diligently implement President Trump’s executive orders, including the ‘Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,’ as well as subsequent associated implementation memos.”

As for the waiver process, the Environmental Defense Fund has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the names of companies applying for exemptions. “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,” said Smith.

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