That's Nice: EPA Does 180, Will Require Coke Plants To Monitor For Benzene, Chromium, Other Toxins After All [View all]

Public health advocates pushed back when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it planned to delay for two years a requirement that steel companies monitor air quality at the perimeters of their 11 coke plants in Western Pennsylvania and across the country. Two groups sued.

Now, the EPA has reversed course. The deadline to begin so-called fenceline monitoring for emissions of benzene, chromium and other toxic contaminants, set by the Biden administration, had been in July. On July 8, the Trump EPA extended the deadline until July 2027 in an interim final rule , saying there wasn’t enough time to seek, compile and respond to public comments, potentially forcing some companies into violation.

On Friday the EPA said in a notice that it was withdrawing the delay because the policy wouldn’t create compliance problems for industry after all. “EPA does not believe that the currently available information supports a conclusion that regulated parties would face significant immediate compliance challenges,” the agency wrote after the nonprofits Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice sued over the matter.

The environmentalists’ lawsuit challenged the rule on the grounds that it deprived people in nearby communities of protection against toxic air pollution. Rather than defend the interim final rule in court, the environmental groups said in a statement, the EPA affirmed its prior finding that coke ovens are fully capable of complying with the rule, “thereby acknowledging that the delay of compliance dates was never needed.”

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07102025/epa-drops-coke-plant-air-quality-monitoring/