Trump’s EPA to rewrite rules aimed at averting chemical disasters

The Trump administration has moved to rewrite rules designed to prevent disasters at thousands of chemical facilities across the country.

The Environmental Protection Agency filed a motion in federal court Thursday pulling back the safety regulations, introduced last year under former President Joe Biden. The rules, which took effect in May, require sites that handle hazardous chemicals to adopt new safeguards including explicit measures to prepare for storms, floods and other climate-related risks.

They also require some facilities to scrutinize their use of particularly dangerous chemicals and switch to safer alternatives as well as to share more information with neighbors and emergency responders. In addition, facilities that have suffered prior accidents also must undergo independent audits.

President Donald Trump’s EPA intends to rewrite those rules, the agency said in a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. That essentially makes moot a legal challenge launched last year by a group of Republican attorneys general, as well as the chemicals industry, which argued that the rules imposed undue burdens on companies with little safety benefit.

Earthjustice, a nonprofit law group that sued the first Trump organization more than 200 times in support of environmental rules, condemned the move. “Chemical explosions force entire neighborhoods to evacuate. First responders have died rushing into disasters they weren’t warned about,” said Adam Kron, an attorney at the advocacy organization. “Workers have suffered burns, lung damage, and worse, all because companies cut corners to save money.”

The move comes as the Trump administration has embarked on a broad dismantling of climate and environmental policy across the federal government. The EPA did not detail in its filing the specifics of its planned rewrite, and Molly Vaseliou, an agency spokesperson, said the agency would not have comment beyond the filing. While the rule took effect in May, some requirements were to be phased in over several years, which means some of the practices it requires might not yet be in place.

In a letter sent to the agency’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, in January, industry groups including the American Chemistry Council asked for a reconsideration of many of the rules’ main components. “The facilities affected by this program are vital components of the U.S. economy, supporting millions of jobs, driving innovation and maintaining our global competitiveness,” the groups said. “It is imperative that EPA take immediate action to fix critical areas of this rule.”

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