Eric Lipton NYT

Everyone should read these threads I did about industry lobbyists and the EPA and understand them. Take the time to see the unambiguous evidence of what's happening now at this moment inside the EPA. Please retweet them. Please read them. Each one of the threads. It's happening in slow motion.

President Trump wants to build a 250-foot-tall arch. If completed, it will cast shadows on many graves and monuments in nearby Arlington National Cemetery, the @washingtonpost.com's 3-D analysis found. On some days, Trump's arch would even shade the grave and eternal flame of JFK.

So readers: We've offered today a small overview of thousands of documents NYT collected as part of reporting for this story--just a tiny fraction shared here What is clear? Documentation matters. Transparency matters Accountability matters. Thanks for reading www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/c...

So EPA staff warns--above-don't strike comprehensive fenceline EtO monitoring from the rule. Bad idea. Industry wants it gone. What happens? Szabo instructed the staff to remove fenceline as across-the-board mandate. Massive industry victory. We got the draft decision (not yet public)

But the chemical industry wanted this requirement killed. VERY MUCH. Here is Indorama asking EPA in 2025 to kill the fenceline monitoring requirement. (Yes more documents)

Fenceline monitoring at oil refineries adopted a decade ago had been an enormous public health success. The EPA in 2024 had moved to extend this fenceline monitoring to chemical plants. awsedap.epa.gov/public/exten...

CRITICAL PUBLIC HEALTH MOMENT HERE. Huge implications, for years. How much will rules be watered down???? EPA staff warned Szabo that he should keep the requirement for fenceline monitoring at chemical plants Eliminating it would be hard to defend in court.

The EPA staff spent months soliciting input from the chemical industry. We have all these records. Pulled them. Then the staff presented Szabo and Tardif with some options. VERY, VERY important meeting. DECISIONAL BRIEFING they call it. Meeting was Aug. 13 2026. We got those records too.

We pulled EPA entry logs. Every chemical industry meeting, we put into a spreadsheet. We counted up how many times chemical industry executives and lobbyists came to meet with EPA officials. DOZENS of times. As they worked together to re-write the rules. Here is small piece of our spreadsheet

I found no records of similar meetings with enviornmental or public health groups during Trump's second term. No documents to share on that. Sorry folks. Let me know if you find them.

The industry lobbyists and lawyers were very explict in their requests. They gave the agency a detailed list of parts of the chemical plant HON rule they wanted gone. Here are those documents. static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics...

Early 2025, Szabo & Tardif, both former petrochemical lobbyists, got appointed to oversee the EPA Office of Air and Radiation. Agency staff then started an effort to roll back the HON rule. First, meetings with chemical industry bosses to figure out a plan. See link static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics...

THREAD 5: HON RULE PENDING TAKEDOWN Of all 2024 actions to tighten Clean Air Act, arguably most important was the HON rule, covering giant chemical plants like Indorama Port Neches. When these plants have leaks, they are massive in scale. Consider this 2022 incident at Indorama: 152 hours

These documents were collected as part of our reporting on the Clean Air Act rollbacks in Trump's 2nd term We have been working on this story since March. Collecting documents, going out into the field & pushing each week for more info. @maxinejoselow.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/c...

Then Szabo, a former industry lobbyist, did a giant favor for his former clients. 1) Trump had issued waivers. 2) Szabo team then rewrote rule. 3) Now Szabo then moved to urge agency to stop enforcement of old rule. EPA in action, 2026 static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics...

Inside the EPA, the effort continued to water down the rule --to make Trump temporary waiver into permanent relief for the industry. Our EPA FOIAs produced more documents. First, under Aaron Szabo, agency REDLINED the rule, removing major public health provisions static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics...

It was less than a year later that this same facility had an accident. Our FOIA from APRIL 2026 turned up the evidence. Here are all the records THE NYT got in early 2026 and in several follow up FOIAs. Collected here. static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics...

And that exemption from Trump came through....

This was another facility that asked Trump for a presidential exemption. A 2024 EPA rule required enhanced building systems to contain EtO. and continuous monitoring system to quickly detect leaks.

THREAD 4: The Virginia Medical Sterilizer Early this year, we also identified a plant owned by Sterilization Services of Virginia, not far from Richmond Va. My colleague @maxinejoselow.bsky.social in APRIL 2026 did her own FOIAs for state inspection records. What we got back was startling.

One other tidbit we found in EPA records database. A video of toxins leaking from an Eto storage facility at Indorama Port Neches. CLICK ON LINK to see the video, shot in 2024 by an EPA inspector. vp.nyt.com/video/2026/1...

I asked every person I met in Port Neches and Groves Tx., a next-door community, if they knew that Indorama had asked for and received a Trump exemption, removing the requirement at least for now that Indorama take steps to curb cancer-causing emissions. No one had been told. Many were angry.

The deadline for the first upgrades was coming fast. The chemical industry was getting nervous. As Trump did not move instantly to grant the exemptions. So the chemical industry bosses wrote Trump. Move it, they said. Three days later--Trump complied. Presidential exemptions granted.

Indorama turned to Trump for an exemption. We got those documents too. It did not want to have to install the fenceline monitors by July 2026. Or to make upgrades by 2027 to its air toxics pollution controls. (See Szabo and Tardif again)

I went to Port Neches. I spent three days there. Nice little community. A lot of community spirit. But people live right at the edge of the plant. I could smell it. I spoke with nearly two dozen area residents. I drew this map for our photographer, pointing to where I interviewed people

The EPA moved ahead. It was alarmed by the data it was collecting. The chemical industry was under estimating cancer-causing emissions. EPA moved to mandate that these plants install fenceline monitors. And if levels were high, they must investigate why and fix it.

When the results came back-it looked bad for Indorama. It not only had the highest level of detected EtO in the air at its fenceline. It also had much higher levels than estimated. More people at risk The executives at Indorama were not happy with EPA test plan, or the results. LOADS of emails

The EPA back in 2022 moved to collect information from plants like Indorama. Was it leaking more EtO than it estimated? If so what should the EPA do about this. Who was at risk. Might more people be getting cancer?

Indorama Port Neches presented the greatest cancer risk in the U.S. subject to the HON rule. It makes ethylene oxide (EtO), used in plastic bottles, to sterilizer medical devices, among many other uses. EtO also is extremely carcinogenic. We collected thousands of pages of records on Indorama.

THREAD 3: The Plant with Biggest Cancer Risk As we worked on this story, we spent weeks considering which plants to focus on. We needed to visit communities/get input from area residents. Yes, all of these plants have been written abt before. We let the data tell us where to go. THIS CHART POINTED>

Let me add here for a moment. More than a dozen FOIAs. A very long, compilated process compiling these records. A big thank you FOIA staff involved, going through all these requests, doing redactions when necessary, and then helping democracy work by making documents public

By March 2025, EPA is moving rapidly to start taking applications for exemptions from chemical manufacters and other polluters. The door is opened.....

So Szabo had previously worked as a lobbyist for AFMP, the petrochemical trade group. The Senate took a while to confirm him for his post overseeing the re-write of chemical plant rules. So AFMP writes Senate. Asks Senate to confirm Szabo. Their former lobbyist. He will bring a "fresh perspective."

Szabo keeps going. Now it is March 2025. He reaches out to a White House lawyer and explains to her how the never-before-used presidential exemption could work. Trump can use the nuclear option...for the HON rule, for chemical plants. The holy grail here. Suspend it with presidential pen.

So Szabo mobilizes. Here are some key emails. We FOIAed them. Enviornmental groups FOIAed them & the law worked. Here is the behind the scenes. Aaron asks Tardif and another former oil industry lobbyist, Alex Dominguez, to prepare for senior Trump officials. Look at options: Presidential Exemption

No president--be in Republican or Democrat--had ever used this power But the chemical industry hated the 2024 Biden-era rules, intented to curb cancer from chemical plants/medical sterilizers. (Notice Szabo & Tardif, former industry lobbyists, cc-ed) Jan 2026: They pushed for the nuclear option .

THREAD 1: The Nuclear Option. Using Presidential Power to Wipe Out EPA Toxics Rules For decades now, Clean Air Act has allowed the president to issue a so-called presidential exemption to at least temporarily suspect a rule intended to protect public health/air quality. I found this from 1973

These documents are among the more than 400,000 pages of EPA records we collected as we working on this story. More than 10,000 of them shed light on these lobbying moves. @maxinejoselow.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/c...

This is what you call a revolving door. NEXT UP: Thread Part 2. The Presidential Exemptions, A behind the scenes with the involvement of Szabo, the former industry lobbyist turned EPA division chief

FLASH FORWARD to Trump Term II. Now Szabo at the EPA, in charge of the agency unit that is re-writing the rules and Tardif's boss, the former AFPM lobbyist. So again, now Aaron is the boss of the folks at EPA he was previously lobbying. He calls them for a staff meeting here.

Another key player was Aaron Szabo. He too is a former petrochemical lobbyist, and he also worked as lobbyist for trade group representing medical sterilizers that use a cancer-causing chemical known as ethylene oxide. Here during Biden, he sets up meeting with EPA for the industry.

Now she was meeting with AFPM as AFPM moved to rollback air toxics rules--this time as the government boss helping deliver the rollback the industry wanted. Loads of meetings including AFPM, where she used to work for as lobbyist

Consider Abigale Tardif, now Acting Assistant Administrato at the E.P.A. who helps oversee Office of Air and Radiation, which writes/or re-writes/waters down Clean Air Act rules. She was previously a lobbyist for American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM).

The EPA instantly went to work to deliver on this request, the documents show. This included a series of meetings with top industry lobbyists. But here is the interesting thing. The chem industry lobbyists were meeting with EPA officials who themselves were former industry lobbyists.