“Toxic Shell Game” examines the Trump administration’s withdrawal of a 23-year-old EPA policy called “Once In, Always In,” which requires hundreds of major sources of air pollution — coal-fired power plants, chemical factories, steel mills and other industrial facilities — to continue running their air pollution control systems once they install them. These systems can remove or destroy as much as 99 percent of hazardous air pollutants that would otherwise be released to the atmosphere.
Reversal of these air pollution control regulations would allow many industrial plants across the U.S. to switch off their pollution control systems and release more toxic air pollutants that threaten public health. These emissions include neurotoxins like lead, carcinogens like benzene and dioxin, and acid gases.
