Twelve petrochemical companies in Louisiana have received two-year exemptions from President Donald Trump from complying with a 2024 rule aimed at cutting pollution and cancer risks for communities near industrial plants, a regulation they had labeled unnecessarily costly but which environmental activists had lauded as long-overdue.

The new proclamation cites technological limits, concerns over cost and national security impacts from supply chain disruptions to put off compliance until 2028 for major petrochemical companies operating in the Mississippi River region and Lake Charles area. Some advocates said they see the new exemptions as an interim move to delay implementation while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency undoes or lessens the requirements permanently.

Last year, e

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