President Trump granted two years of regulatory relief from Biden-era regulations on various sectors that the Trump administration says are “vital to national security.”

A press release from the White House said Mr. Trump signed four proclamations covering coal plants; taconite iron ore processing facilities; and certain manufacturers that produce chemicals related to semiconductors, medical device sterilization, advanced manufacturing, and national defense systems.

“The exemptions ensure that these facilities within these critical industries can continue to operate uninterrupted to support national security without incurring substantial costs to comply with, in some cases, unattainable compliance requirements,” the release said.

The proclamations allow the facilities to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency standards that were in place before the Biden administration imposed its new rules.

Earlier this year, Mr. Trump granted a similar exemption to nearly 70 coal-fired power plants from federal requirements to reduce toxic chemical emissions.

Among the exempted are iron ore plants in Minnesota owned by United States Steel Corporation and others in Minnesota and Michigan owned by Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.

Coal-fired power plants in Ohio, Illinois and Colorado have also been exempted, along with chemical manufacturing plants and medical sterilization facilities in a slew of states.

The Biden-era “emissions standards impose costly and, in some cases, unattainable compliance requirements on these industries essential to national interests.”

“These sectors are critical to maintaining national security and economic stability. Shutdowns could compromise our grid and lead to electricity shortages and reliance on foreign energy, increase our reliance on foreign supply chains for semiconductors, reduce our ability to provide sterile medical equipment for public health and military readiness, and reduce the supply on steel that we need to support critical infrastructure,” the White House release said.

Environmentalist critics decried the exemptions he had granted coal-fired plants earlier this year, citing air pollution and threats to public health.

“These passes to pollute carve a ragged hole through the heart of federal protections for the air we breathe,” Maya Golden-Krasner, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Associated Press in April. 

“To suggest that it’s a matter of national security to force people from Montana to Alabama to inhale more neurotoxins is offensive. This is what it looks like to put polluter profits ahead of the wellbeing of Americans and the planet,” she said.

• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.