WASHINGTON – Former presidentโ Donald Trump โon Friday reversed a Biden governance rule imposingโ stricter pollution limits on copper smelters, โคciting concerns for American mineral security and domestic production.Teh move grants a two-year exemption from compliance with updated federal air standards for affected โคfacilities.
The rule, finalized in May 2024, requiredโ smelters to โขreduce emissions of pollutantsโ including lead,โฃ arsenic, mercury, benzene, and dioxins. The Trump administration argues that adhering to these requirements could force further โclosures within the already limited U.S. copper smelting industry, increasing reliance onโค foreignโข suppliers and weakening the โnation’s industrial base.โข The decision underscores a broader Trump administration strategy of prioritizingโค domestic mineral production, even if it means rolling back environmental regulations.
According to โฃtheโ White House, the exemption will help promote American mineral securityโ byโฃ reducing regulatoryโ burdens on domestic copper producers. “Imposing these requirements on such a limited and already strained domestic industry โrisks accelerating further closures, weakening the Nation’s industrial โbase, undermining mineral independence,โข and increasing reliance on foreign-controlled processing โcapacity,” a statement released Friday โฃread.
The U.S. currently operates only โtwo copper smelters, located in Arizona and Utah. Freeport-McMoRan and โRio โTinto, the operators of those smelters,โฃ didโ not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This โคaction follows an executive orderโ signed by Trumpโ earlier this โฃyear identifying copper as a critical material for defense, infrastructure, and emergingโ technologies, โฃincluding clean energy and electric vehicles. That order initiated a Section 232 investigation into whether copper imports threaten U.S. national security. Theโ investigation lead to the imposition of a 50%โ tariff on certainโฃ imported copper and a mandate requiring an increasingโฃ percentage of high-quality scrap copper producedโฃ in the U.S. to be sold โฃdomestically.