Trump Administration Eases Rules On Copper Smelters

The Trump administration has eliminated regulations put into place by the Biden administration that had imposed stricter limits on emissions from copper smelters. That regulations, which were only finalized in May 2024, required smelters to curb pollutants such as lead, arsenic, mercury, benzene, and dioxins.

A White House proclamation, available at this link, argued, “The Biden-era emissions standard impose[d] costly and unattainable compliance requirements on copper smelting, as the technologies necessary to comply do not yet exist in commercially viable or cost-effective forms.” That proclamation also noted that only two primary copper smelters remain in operation in the United States, and “imposing this Biden-era standard on an already strained domestic industry risks accelerating further closures, weakening the nation’s industrial base, undermining mineral independence, and increasing reliance on foreign-controlled processing capacity.”

The Trump administration policy grants a two-year exemption from compliance for affected stationary sources.

White House officials said this move would help promote U.S. mineral security by reducing regulatory burdens on domestic copper producers. The proclamation argued that, without these exemptions, “the United States faces grid instability, loss of domestic semiconductor inputs, and greater dependence on adversarial nations.”