• A 2023 EPA program revealed that industrial facilities have been drastically underestimating their emissions of cancer-causing chemicals, with real levels often dozens of times higher than reported.

• The Biden administration subsequently finalized rules requiring over 130 chemical plants, coke ovens and steel mills to install permanent fenceline monitors and reduce emissions.

• The Trump administration has halted these rules, initiating a rollback and granting two-year compliance exemptions to dozens of facilities.

• This regulatory reversal leaves millions of Americans, particularly in industrial clusters in Texas and Louisiana, facing significantly higher cancer risks than previously known.

• The decision prioritizes corporate flexibility over verifiable data and public health, undermining a proven method for accountability.

In a decisive move that has stunned environmental advocates and community groups, the Trump administration has halted a landmark Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiative designed to force corporate transparency and significantly reduce cancer-causing air pollution. The action, taken shortly after the president's inauguration, stops a plan that would have required more than 130 industrial facilities to install permanent air monitors and comply with stringent new emission standards. This reversal, which includes granting two-year exemptions to dozens of plants, effectively sidelines a data-driven solution to a decades-old problem: the vast underestimation of toxic emissions by industry, leaving millions of Americans in the dark about the true health risks in the air they breathe.