Trump granted two-year exemption for Arizona copper smelter after EPA email guidance

President Trump exempted Freeport-McMoRan’s copper smelter in Miami, Arizona, from federal air-quality limits for two years, and emails and documents reviewed by The New York Times show an E.P.A. official guided a lawyer for the company on how to request the exemption. The smelter, one of only two remaining in the United States, reported emitting more than 11.6 tons of lead and 2.5 tons of arsenic in 2024 to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.

The Biden administration’s recent rule would have required Freeport to install an additional baghouse to capture pollutants; E.P.A. officials estimated that control would cost $59.5 million, while Freeport later submitted a request saying compliance could cost as much as $309 million, according to the documents.

The company had also sued to strike down the rule, and the San Carlos Apache Tribe separately argued the rule was too weak. The records show a March exchange in which a Freeport lawyer, Patrick Traylor, contacted Abigale Tardif, a top E.P.A. air official, after the agency created a process allowing exemptions under an obscure Clean Air Act provision tied to national security.

E.P.A.

Key Topics

Politics, Freeport-mcmoran, Miami Arizona, Lead Pollution, Epa, Clean Air Act