To amend the Clean Air Act to establish authority for the President to waive the requirement for an advanced manufacturing facility or a critical mineral facility to offset increased emissions of any air pollutant, and for other purposes.
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Palmer introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill makes it easier for semiconductor factories and critical mineral mining operations to get air pollution permits by weakening Clean Air Act requirements. It allows the President to waive emission offset requirements for national security reasons and lets states offer alternative compliance pathways for these facilities.
Who Benefits and How
Semiconductor manufacturers (like Intel, TSMC, Samsung) benefit significantly by avoiding costly emission offset requirements when building new chip factories. They can either get a presidential waiver citing national security or use alternative state-level compliance options that are less burdensome than standard Clean Air Act requirements.
Critical mineral mining and processing companies extracting materials like lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements gain the same advantages, allowing them to expand operations with reduced environmental compliance costs.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Local communities near new semiconductor plants and mining operations may face increased air pollution since these facilities can bypass standard emission offset requirements that typically ensure air quality improvements elsewhere to compensate for new pollution sources.
State environmental agencies take on additional administrative burden to evaluate alternative offset proposals and manage emissions fee programs, while having less authority to reject projects on environmental grounds.
Existing industrial facilities that competed under stricter rules face a competitive disadvantage compared to new semiconductor and mining projects that receive preferential treatment.
Key Provisions
-
Presidential National Security Waiver: The President can personally waive Clean Air Act emission offset requirements for semiconductor and critical mineral facilities if deemed in the national security interest (cannot be delegated)
-
Alternative Offset Mechanisms: State authorities must allow these facilities to use alternative compliance methods when standard offsets are unavailable, including paying fees capped at 1.5x local control costs
-
Defined Facility Categories: Creates specific definitions for "advanced manufacturing facility" (semiconductor production) and "critical mineral facility" (extraction/processing of minerals designated by Interior Secretary)
-
State-Level Implementation: Shifts permitting flexibility to state authorities while reducing federal environmental oversight
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Amends the Clean Air Act to create expedited permitting pathways for semiconductor manufacturing and critical mineral extraction facilities by allowing presidential waivers of emission offset requirements for national security and alternative offset mechanisms through state authorities.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Streamline environmental permitting for strategically important manufacturing by creating exemptions to Clean Air Act offset requirements, framed as national security necessity."
Likely Beneficiaries
- Semiconductor manufacturers and equipment makers
- Critical mineral extraction and processing companies
- Mining companies extracting critical minerals
Likely Burden Bearers
- Local communities near new facilities (air quality impacts)
- Environmental regulators (reduced enforcement authority)
- Existing polluters who must still comply with offset requirements
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_president"
- → President of the United States
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of the Interior
- "permitting_authority"
- → State permitting authority
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
A facility the primary purpose of which is the manufacturing of semiconductors or semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
A facility the primary purpose of which is the extraction, processing, refining, or milling of a critical mineral (as designated by the Secretary of the Interior).
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology