Trump Proclamation Extends Compliance Deadlines for Revised Coke Oven NEHSAPS…Again

We find ourselves somewhat surprised to report that the federal government’s struggle against its own revised National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for coke ovens continues. 

Quick background: The EPA promulgated the Revised Coke Oven NESHAPs in 2024.  Among other things, they required that coke oven operators monitor for benzene at their fencelines; imposed new limits on emissions of hazardous air pollutants from coke oven pushing, quenching, and battery stacks; and imposed new limits on leaking coke oven doors, lids, and offtake piping.

Last spring, we reported that pursuant to Section 112(i)(4) of the Clean Air Act, EPA offered to delay compliance deadlines that were imposed on facilities by several revised NESHAPs that were promulgated during the waning months of the Biden Administration, including the Revised Coke Oven NESHAPs.  

Section 112(i)(4) authorizes the President to delay compliance deadlines set by a NESHAPs when the technology needed to comply is not available and the delay is in the interest of national security. 

Both U.S. Steel and Cleveland Cliffs (the operators of the Clairton Coke Works and Monessen Coke Works, respectively) asked for compliance extensions from the deadlines imposed by the Revised Coke Oven NESHAPs.  

On July 8, 2025, EPA issued an interim final rule that would have extended those compliance deadlines for the full two years authorized by Section 112(i)(4), as U.S. Steel and Cleveland Cliffs requested. 

 The original compliance deadline was July 5, 2025; the new compliance deadline under the July 8, 2025, Interim Final Rule would have been July 5, 2027. 

As you may recall, we spoke out against the July 8, 2025 Interim Final Rule this past summer. Accordingly, in October we were pleased to report that it appeared that EPA would scrap the July 8, 2025 Interim Final Rule and go ahead with the original deadlines in the Revised Coke Oven NESHAPs: on Oct. 3, 2025, EPA withdrew the July 8, 2025 Interim Final Rule, stating that withdrawal “effectively reinstitutes the compliance deadlines set forth in the 2024 final rule,” to wit:  July 5, 2027.

Cut to Nov. 21, 2025, when the president issued a proclamation that purports to give coke oven operators the full additional two years authorized by Section 112(i)(4) to comply with the deadlines in the Revised Coke Oven NESHAPs.  

Should this Proclamation withstand the inevitable legal challenge, the compliance deadline for the Revised Coke Oven NESHAPs will (once again) be July 5, 2027. 

“The government’s flip-flops on this beggar belief,” GASP Senior Attorney John Baillie said. “This latest switch sure looks arbitrary and capricious. It further underscores how public health concerns and even common sense seem to have been shoved into the back seat by rule makers in the administration.”