Trump gives Louisville plant more time to address pollution. Homes sit 500 feet away

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President Donald Trump granted a regulatory exemption to a Bakelite Synthetics chemical plant in southwest Jefferson County, giving the company more time to comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules on hazardous air emissions.

Under a July 17 presidential proclamation, Trump issued exemptions to more than 50 chemical plants, extending compliance deadlines by two years for certain Biden-era regulations. The regulations, known in EPA shorthand as the HON rules, required many of the nation's largest chemical plants to strengthen pollution controls to confront local risks of cancer and other health problems.

The Bakelite plant, which produces formaldehyde and resins for a wide range of uses, was the only Kentucky chemical plant to receive an exemption through the president's proclamation. Louisville plants operated by Zeon Chemicals, American Synthetic Rubber Co. and Chemours were also subject to the HON rules, but were not named in the president's list of exemptions.

Earlier this year, the Trump EPA invited companies to request a presidential exemption from regulations under a section of the Clean Air Act "if the technology to implement the standard is not available," and if "it is in the national security interests of the United States" to grant the exemption.

The Bakelite facility is one of the clearest examples in Louisville of heavy industry operating in close proximity to residential areas. The plant is only a few hundred feet from homes in the Riverside Gardens neighborhood, where some residents have raised concerns in the past about toxic air emissions and the hazards of living nearby. Most recently, a January chemical spill from the plant turned a creek red as it ran through the neighborhood.

The exemptions are one action in a firehose of deregulation from the Trump administration, much of which could pose consequences for the environment in Kentucky. In recent months, the administration has also moved to weaken environmental regulations for power plants and delay deadlines for cleanup and monitoring of toxic coal ash, in addition to a broader assault on the federal government's ability to combat climate change.

Regulations delayed for Louisville formaldehyde plant

When the Biden EPA brought forward the proposed HON rules, aimed at more than 200 chemical plants, the agency estimated that millions of Americans face an elevated risk of cancer from the plants' emissions. By requiring greater pollution controls and enhanced air monitoring, the agency planned to wipe out thousands of tons of toxic emissions and ease associated health risks.

In 2023, following the EPA's proposal, the American Lung Association and other health advocacy groups urged the agency to strengthen and "quickly finalize" the rules, which the groups said "have the potential to dramatically reduce cancer risk for communities located near certain facilities."

But the chemical industry bristled at requirements to invest in additional pollution controls, and said the EPA supported the rules with overly conservative estimates of the toxicity of some emissions.

Trump's proclamation ― deeming the HON rules a "substantial burden" on facilities that domestically produce "essential inputs for critical infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, medical sterilization, semiconductors, and national defense systems" ― gives the industry more time to prevent emissions of hazardous chemicals.

Bakelite originally had until 2027 to comply with new pollution control requirements, according to a spokesperson for the Louisville Air Pollution Control District. Trump's proclamation pushes the plant's compliance deadline to 2029.

The American Chemical Council, an industry group representing chemical manufacturers nationwide, praised the administration's exemptions and criticized parts of the Biden-era rule, which the group said "required significant capital expenditures and risked potential shutdowns with unworkable compliance deadlines."

Bakelite is "aligned with (the American Chemistry Council) in the belief that the HON rule may threaten the production of essential chemistries that are crucial for our national security interests, including public health and economic security, as they are used for countless everyday products and critical industries such as agriculture, healthcare, semiconductor manufacturing, and more," company spokesperson John Branham said in a statement.

"We are confident that, through collaboration, we can identify a balanced path that continues to advance public health while supporting the innovation that strengthens our economy and daily lives," he added.

Environmental advocates often argue that easing regulations on polluters as a cost-saving measure simply shifts the burden to local communities in the form of higher health care costs and other negative externalities. In proposing the HON rules, Biden's EPA pointed to toxic air emissions and the imposed "costs on society, such as negative health and welfare impacts ... that are not reflected in the market price of the good produced through the polluting process."

Nearly 2,000 people live within a mile of the Louisville Bakelite facility, including 300 children age 5 or younger ― a group that is especially vulnerable to chemical exposure, according to toxicologists and a recent White House Make America Healthy Again report. More than half of the population is considered low-income, according to federal data.

And a stretch of southwest Jefferson County following the Ohio River, including the community around Bakelite, has the highest cancer rate in the county, according to data from the city's Center for Health Equity, along with disproportionately high rates of other health conditions, like asthma and heart disease.

Bakelite's extended compliance deadline comes after the EPA canceled a grant to Louisville's Air Pollution Control District and other community organizations to conduct air monitoring of toxic emissions downwind of the Rubbertown industrial corridor, of which Bakelite Synthetics is a part.

"We don't really know, necessarily, what is in the air of the communities surrounding facilities, including Bakelite, because we don't have dedicated air monitoring in each of those communities," said Byron Gary, an attorney with the Kentucky Resources Council and a former regulatory coordinator at APCD.

APCD operates an air monitoring station at Algonquin Parkway, but the site is about 3 miles northeast of Bakelite, and does not monitor for formaldehyde specifically.

Bakelite, the only source of formaldehyde emissions in Louisville according to EPA inventories, released more than 1,400 pounds to the air in 2023 ― and there is currently insufficient monitoring of "how much of that formaldehyde is making it into communities," Gary said. The plant also emitted thousands of pounds of other toxic chemicals, including methanol, phenol and ammonia.

As Bakelite receives exemptions from the federal government, its operating permit for the Louisville plant is currently up for renewal before APCD. Advocates see an opportunity in local regulation, and in the ongoing permit process, for more safeguards.

"This would be the perfect time for this city to strengthen that permit in an effort to reduce our exposure to any of the chemicals coming from Bakelite," Eboni Cochran, a longtime environmental justice advocate with Rubbertown Emergency ACTion, or REACT, said in a text message.

"There are solutions," Cochran said. "The city just needs to have enough will and courage to protect its residents."

Kentucky's power sector also granted reduced regulation

In addition to eased regulation for the chemical industry, the Trump administration has also issued two-year exemptions to a number of power plants for regulations on emissions of mercury and other air toxics, known as MATS rules.

Four of the power plants are in Kentucky: Spurlock Station and Cooper Station, operated by East Kentucky Power Cooperative; Shawnee Fossil Plant, operated by Tennessee Valley Authority; and D.B. Wilson Station, operated by Big Rivers Electric Corp.

The toxic byproduct of burning coal in power plants, known as coal ash or combustion residual, is also seeing loosened regulation. The EPA is delaying compliance deadlines for Biden-era rules on addressing the waste, which contains heavy metals linked to cancer and other illnesses, and monitoring for contamination in groundwater.

In a 2022 report, the environmental law nonprofit Earthjustice outlined a number of power plants in Kentucky and around the country where mismanagement of coal ash could be contributing to groundwater contamination, including several LG&E and KU plants. The utilities rejected the report's methodology and findings at the time.

"These delays will come at the expense of communities who have long been suffering from toxic coal ash exposure at the hands of the utility industry," Bri Knisley, director of public power campaigns for Appalachian Voices, said in a statement.

The EPA is also proposing to roll back all greenhouse gas emissions standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants, The Courier Journal previously reported. In Kentucky, where fossil fuels still account for more than 90% of electricity generation, this deregulation would represent a significant setback for emission reduction efforts.

The EPA's decision to roll back both coal ash and greenhouse gas emission rules follows a letter to the administration from LG&E and KU and other utilities in the Ohio River Valley, requesting immediate relief from the regulations. The utilities described the Biden-era rules as threatening the reliability and affordability of the power grid, "without tangible benefits" for public health or the environment.

And on a recent scorching July day in Indiana, the EPA announced plans to overturn the endangerment finding, which largely underpins the agency's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as a public health hazard ― in stark contrast with the long-standing consensus of climate scientists.

The flurry of rule changes and rescissions comes as the EPA sheds nearly a quarter of its staff and shuts down its entire scientific research arm. Some of the programs gutted from the agency have been in place since the Nixon administration, Paste BN reported.

"Part of the strategy here is the rapidity and volume of deregulations," Gary said. "I'm having trouble keeping up with the sheer number of actions."

More: Where heavy industry meets residential: Thousands in Louisville live near chemical risk

Connor Giffin is an environmental reporter for The Courier Journal. Reach him directly at cgiffin@courier-journal.com or on X @byconnorgiffin.