President Donald J. Trump
The White House
Fact Sheets

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Grants Regulatory Relief from Burdensome EPA Restrictions to Promote American Copper Security

The White House

PROVIDING REGULATORY RELIEF: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a Proclamation granting two years of regulatory relief from a stringent Biden-Era EPA rule on primary copper smelting, an industry vital to national security and economic resilience.

  • The Proclamation allows the stationary source named in the Proclamation to comply with the EPA standards that were in place before the Biden Administration rulemakings for two years.
  • This exemption ensures that the stationary source, a copper smelting facility, can continue to operate uninterrupted to support national security without incurring substantial costs to comply with unattainable compliance requirements.

REDUCING BURDENSOME RESTRICTIONS: President Trump recognizes that overly restrictive environmental regulations undermine America’s mineral and metal supply chains, economic vitality, and national security.

  • Copper smelting is essential to America’s energy, defense, and manufacturing sectors.
  • The Biden-era emissions standard imposes 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.
  • 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.
  • Without this relief, the United States faces grid instability, loss of domestic semiconductor inputs, and greater dependence on adversarial nations.

BALANCING ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS WITH AMERICAN PROSPERITY: President Trump has consistently prioritized a pragmatic approach, ensuring environmental policies support, rather than undermine, America’s economic strength and national security.

  • President Trump has sought to protect American industries while maintaining standards that allow Americans to have among the cleanest air and water in the world.
  • He directed the EPA to repeal the Obama-era Clean Power Plan during his first term, replacing it with the Affordable Clean Energy rule in 2019 that set achievable standards to preserve jobs while addressing emissions.
  • He paused the expansion of windmills, recognizing their detrimental environmental impact, particularly on wildlife, often outweighs their benefits.
  • He has championed an energy dominance strategy, boosting domestic oil and gas production to reduce reliance on foreign energy while maintaining practical environmental oversight.
  • He granted two years of similar regulatory relief from stringent Biden-era regulations that impacted other sectors vital to national security, including coal plants, taconite iron ore processing facilities, and certain chemical manufacturers that produce chemicals related to semiconductors, medical device sterilization, advanced manufacturing, and national defense systems.
  • Using Section 232 authorities, he imposed a universal 50% tariff on copper imports to counter national security threats from foreign overproduction and bolster domestic copper production.
  • His approach encourages industry to develop cost-effective solutions like improved emissions technologies rather than imposing unfeasible mandates that risk economic disruption.