The Trump administration has exempted several U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs facilities from having to follow U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules limiting airborne emissions of toxic chemicals.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in late July that exempts the steelmakers from emissions requirements for two years. Cleveland-Cliffs and U.S. Steel will now have to follow new national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants those two years.
The exemptions apply to U.S. Steel's Keetac Plant in Keewatin, Minnesota and Minntac Plant in Mountain Iron, Minnesota, as well as to Cleveland-Cliffs' United Taconite, Northshore Mining, Hibbing Taconite and Mincora mines in Minnesota and Tilden and Empire mines in Michigan. The mines supply iron ore, a crucial ingredient in steelmaking, to the Cleveland-Cliffs and U.S. Steel integrated steel mills along the South Shore of Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana, shipping it across the Great Lakes via lake freighters. It's burned in the Region's blast furnaces to make the iron that's turned into steel.
U.S. Steel had objected to the new rules on taconite iron ore processing that the EPA adopted last year. The regulations would have capped emissions of mercury, which the EPA says can result in health issues like tremors, insomnia, mood swings, muscle atrophy, headaches and poor mental function. The World Health Organization says prolonged mercury exposure especially poses a risk to children and their development.
"To preserve American jobs and domestic steel production, industries like ours must be able to rely on and play by rules that are well-grounded in science and law," U.S. Steel spokesman Andrew Fulton said. "U. S. Steel challenged all three rules legally because they were supported by neither science nor law and would impose significant costs while setting technically unachievable standards. Seeking the presidential exemptions reflects no change to U.S. Steel’s original position that it is supportive of revisions to regulations that are within EPA's statutory authority, based on sound science, and are technically feasible."
New EPA administrator Lee Zeldin invited companies to apply for exemptions to environmental rules if the technology to comply was not yet readily available at a commercial scale, if the company played a role in national security and if the exemption could preserve jobs.
"The presidential exemptions provide an additional path to achieving reasonable, effective environmental standards, which we support as part of our commitment to environmental excellence and to being a good neighbor in the communities where we live and work," Fulton said. "These requests do not change our continued commitment to environmental performance and safety."
The administration and steelmakers have not yet publicly disclosed what exemptions were sought and granted for steel mills and other industrial facilities.
Trump said in his executive order that the Biden administration's Taconite rule placed "significant burdens on a sector critical to the Nation’s industrial foundation."
"Taconite iron ore processing is fundamental to the United States’ steel production and manufacturing sectors," the executive order read. "The facilities involved in the process supply essential raw materials used to make steel, which is used in national defense systems, critical infrastructure, and a broad range of industrial applications. Preserving and enhancing domestic taconite processing capabilities is vital to reducing reliance on foreign sources and ensuring resilience of American industrial supply chains."
The executive order said that emissions control technologies were not yet advanced enough to help the steelmakers comply with the emissions regulations, asserting the rules could threaten jobs and facilities.
"The Taconite Rule risks forcing shutdowns, reducing domestic production, and undermining the nation’s ability to supply steel for defense, energy, and critical manufacturing," the executive order read. "The United States must not allow inflexible regulatory deadlines to jeopardize a material critical to our industrial base. Maintaining this capacity is essential to our national security and economic resilience."
The Sierra Club environmental group decried the regulatory rollback that also exempted three coal plants from mercury and air toxics standards and 52 plants from emissions limits on toxic gases like ethylene oxide and chloroprene.
“The Trump administration follows a very simple philosophy: if you’re a big corporation that puts profit over people, you can have any hall pass you want regardless of how many lives you endanger and how much harm you cause our clean air and water. It is disgusting that Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin are continuing to hand out exemption after exemption from standards that would save lives and prevent illnesses," Sierra Club Climate Policy Director Patrick Drupp said. "They have completely betrayed our health, our communities, and our futures in exchange for profits for big polluters."
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