The Center for Biological Diversity is pushing President Donald Trump’s EPA to reveal which companies asked to be temporarily exempted from certain air toxics rules, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
Trump allowed companies to email the Environmental Protection Agency through a web portal for a Clean Air Act Section 112 waiver, but failed to produce any of the requesters’ names when plaintiffs submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for their release, according to the lawsuit.
The EPA announced in March that companies looking for a two-year relief period from air toxics limits could write personally to the administration and be considered for an exemption—looking to “take advantage of what is intended to be a narrow exemption to the Clean Air Act,” the Center said in its lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the District of Arizona.
The White House has been steadily ticking away at clean air protections since January, most recently announcing proposals to remove more stringent mercury and greenhouse gas regulations for power plants altogether.
Certain coal-fired power plants were already granted waivers for mercury rules, including Montana’s Colstrip facility. Other exemptions have not been announced.
“EPA essentially stated that it would wait for the White House to make decisions on requests for Presidential Exemptions, and would only provide ‘updates’ when available even though the Center’s FOIA request sought the requests themselves and not the ultimate decisions on those requests,” according to the lawsuit.
The group is represented by in-house counsel.
The case is Ctr. for Biological Diversity v. EPA, D. Ariz., No. 4:25-cv-00341, Complaint filed 6/25/25.
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