EPA’s ‘Polluters’ Portal’? No—Just a Return to Pre-Zealotry Sanity – Watts Up With That?

The Associated Press is sounding the alarm—again. This time, the horror is that the EPA, under the Trump administration and Administrator Lee Zeldin, is daring to invoke a long-standing clause in the Clean Air Act to allow temporary exemptions from newly minted Biden-era regulations on industrial emissions. The AP characterizes this as a betrayal of public health and an assault on the environment. In reality, it’s nothing more than a restoration of sanity.

What Actually Happened?

According to the AP, the EPA created an email inbox to allow companies to request exemptions from nine Biden-era regulations, including rules targeting emissions of mercury, ethylene oxide, and other chemicals. These exemptions are not automatic. They require presidential approval under the Clean Air Act, and only if two conditions are met: (1) the control technology is not widely available, and (2) continuing operations serve national security interests.

In short, the administration is using the Clean Air Act exactly as written. This is not deregulation by fiat—it’s a legal process spelled out in black-letter law. And it’s not even new. As the EPA itself pointed out, the Biden administration used the same exemption mechanism when issuing stricter rules on ethylene oxide last year​.

But facts, as usual, are optional for the climate narrative industry.

“Polluters’ Portal” or Lifeline to Reality?

Margie Alt, campaign director of the Climate Action Campaign, derided the move as a “gift to the fossil fuel industry” and claimed it represents a “polluters-first agenda.” Jason Rylander from the Center for Biological Diversity went further, calling the EPA’s legal mechanism “ridiculous” and “an invitation to pollute”​.

Let’s be honest: these activists would object if industries were granted even a five-minute reprieve from regulatory overreach. Their logic is theological, not scientific. In their view, any emission—no matter how minor, no matter how economically vital the source—is sacrilege. If it takes bankrupting communities to reduce hypothetical future risks derived from models with high uncertainty margins, so be it.

We are told repeatedly that mercury causes brain damage and ethylene oxide causes cancer, but these statements are made without the crucial context: exposure thresholds. Modern industrial controls already reduce these substances to extremely low levels. The question is not whether these chemicals are harmful at some level, but whether the incremental gains from ever-stricter standards justify the staggering costs—both financial and societal.

This is not “denial.” It’s cost-benefit analysis.

Weaponized Regulations, Not Public Health Protections

Much of the Biden administration’s climate agenda was never about measured improvements in air quality. It was about using the administrative state to crush politically disfavored industries. If that sounds extreme, consider this: the new rules targeted coal-fired power plants and over 200 chemical facilities—mostly in red-state America—despite little evidence that the existing controls were failing or that their emissions posed current, measurable risks​.

These rules were passed not to protect children, but to strangle American energy and manufacturing. Administrator Zeldin simply opened a lawful exit ramp for companies facing arbitrary new constraints that threaten their viability.

This is governance, not environmental nihilism.

“Abuse of Power” or Due Process?

Critics like Vickie Patton of the Environmental Defense Fund claim the exemption option is an “abuse of power.” Yet they never raised these objections when the Biden administration did the same thing. The selective outrage reveals what this is really about: power, not pollution​.

The Clean Air Act’s exemption clause exists for a reason. It recognizes that environmental idealism must sometimes give way to economic and strategic reality. Declaring that industrial capacity must shut down overnight to comply with sudden new mandates is not policy—it’s sabotage.

And let’s not forget: many of these plants serve critical national functions, from energy to materials supply. The exemption process offers a pathway to keep them online temporarily, while technological feasibility catches up. That’s not deregulation. That’s common sense.

The Bigger Picture: Bureaucratic Overreach vs. National Interest

The AP is also aghast that Administrator Zeldin is considering deep staffing cuts at the EPA and may eliminate its scientific research office. The horror! How will we survive without 1,000 federal employees reinforcing the same “scientific consensus” that props up every climate policy from here to Brussels?

The truth is, the EPA has become a political actor. Its “science” increasingly functions as a cloak for ideological policymaking. Reducing its budget and trimming its bureaucratic excesses is not anti-science—it’s anti-tyranny.

If the research office exists primarily to churn out justifications for more regulation, then yes, it should be shut down. Real science thrives under scrutiny. It doesn’t require 1,000 salaried activists and a billion-dollar budget to be persuasive.

Conclusion: Let’s Stop Pretending This is About “Health”

Every regulation has costs, and those costs matter. When new rules threaten jobs, increase consumer prices, or kneecap strategic industries, we must ask: is the benefit real? Is the risk immediate and quantifiable? Or is it another round of climate theatrics aimed at pleasing donor bases and ideologically motivated NGOs?

The EPA’s exemption portal isn’t a “get-out-of-jail-free card.” It’s a return to lawful, deliberate governance—a rare thing in the age of emergency mandates and bureaucratic crusades. If the Biden administration had pushed through these rules under normal democratic scrutiny, maybe there’d be less resistance.

Instead, what we have is a zealous regulatory machine colliding with the real-world limits of energy, economics, and common sense.

And for once, sanity is winning.

H/T Steve Milloy