President Grants Two‑Year EPA Delay for Coke Plants

2025-11-21

Two Winters’ Breath by DALL-E 3

President Grants Two‑Year EPA Delay for Coke Plants

Bread and Circus: The Complete Record of American Governance

Today’s newsletter covers official U.S. government happenings from the executive, legislative, and judicial branches yesterday, as well as key economic indicators. Below, you’ll find concise summaries of each document, with links to the original sources for further reading.

What Happened Yesterday:

🦅 Executive Branch: 6 documents (1 Presidential Action, 4 Proposed Rules, 1 Rule)
🏛️ Legislative Branch: 1 documents (1 Congressional Bill)
⚖️ Judicial Branch: No activity
📊 Economic Indicators: 1 documents (1 Bureau of Labor Statistics press release)
Total words condensed: 75,965 into 1,984

The Big Picture

This morning’s headlines show the federal government prioritizing industry and security concerns while tightening some security rules — with concrete near‑term effects. On November 21, 2025 the President used a Clean Air Act authority to give specific coke‑making plants a two‑year delay on new EPA pollution limits, saying the delay protects steel and defense supply chains; critics say it also postpones cleaner emissions controls. That same day federal agencies published a slate of proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act process — reverting parts of the rules to 2019 language, removing a 2024 “offsets” option, requiring species‑by‑species threatened‑status protections, and adding a formal way to exclude areas from critical habitat for economic or security reasons — with public comment periods ending December 22, 2025 and the changes applying only to decisions made after each final rule’s effective date. Meanwhile, Customs and Border Protection’s enhanced Air Cargo Advance Screening rule took effect November 21, 2025 (with full enforcement phased in over 12 months); it requires four new data fields for every air shipment and could touch about 1.25 billion cargo filings a year at an estimated $117 million in annualized costs.

Taken together these moves mark a clear policy tilt: regulators are recalibrating the trade‑offs between environmental protection, economic activity, and national security, while expanding data collection for transport security. The ESA proposals would narrow how far officials look into future risks when labeling a species “threatened,” make protections less automatic (moving to species‑specific rules), and give agencies formal authority to exclude lands from critical habitat if exclusion’s benefits outweigh harms — unless exclusion would lead to extinction. On the economy side, September 2025 labor data show wages barely kept pace with prices month‑to‑month (hourly pay up 0.2% while prices rose 0.3%, leaving real hourly pay unchanged), though real hourly pay is up 0.8% year‑over‑year; and Congress sent a bill to the President (presented November 21, 2025) requiring the State Department to review Taiwan policy at least every five years and report to Congress within 90 days of each review.

Pattern to Watch

A coherent pattern is emerging: regulatory moves that lower near‑term costs or risks for industry and infrastructure while formalizing tradeoffs that can limit environmental protections. Indicators include the two‑year, facility‑specific delay of EPA standards (Nov 21, 2025), multiple November 21 ESA rule proposals that roll back 2024 changes and restore 2019 language (comment deadline Dec 22, 2025), the new mechanism to exclude lands from critical habitat, and the CBP rule increasing mandatory shipment data (effective Nov 21, 2025 with 12‑month phase‑in). If regulators finalize these proposals after the December 22 comment windows, and if the White House or agencies use similar statutory authorities again (for example, more Clean Air Act delays or targeted exclusions), expect faster permitting and fewer automatic species protections but also increased litigation and state‑level pushback. Concrete signs the pattern is escalating would be finalized ESA rules that apply agency‑wide, additional executive waivers for environmental rules, expanded customs data requirements across other transport modes, or a steady stream of industry‑focused exemptions announced in the coming 6–24 months.

🦅 Executive Branch

White House

The proclamation signed on November 21, 2025, says the President is excusing certain coke‑making facilities named in an attached list from parts of an EPA rule published July 5, 2024, and is giving each of those facilities a 2‑year delay in the rule’s deadlines so they must follow the older standards for that time; it says this action is taken under a Clean Air Act provision (section 112(i)(4)) and argues the new technology isn’t commercially ready and that the delay is needed for national security. This affects the specific “stationary sources” listed in the annex (coke oven and coke production sites) and matters because, according to the proclamation, it could prevent plant closures and protect steel and defense production, while critics would note it also delays new pollution controls. Read full document →

Federal Register

On November 21, 2025, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA proposed changing the Endangered Species Act rules that guide how federal agencies check projects that might hurt listed plants and animals (they want to change parts of 50 CFR part 402). If this rule is finalized, federal agencies and anyone getting federal permits or money for projects (for example, roads, energy, water, or building projects) would have to follow the new wording for future ESA “section 7” reviews; the public can comment on the proposal until December 22, 2025, and the rule would only apply to consultations finished after the rule’s effective date (it would not reach back to past consultations). The change would remove the 2024 option to use “offsets” (making up harm elsewhere) in required measures, bring back earlier 2019 text for how to decide what effects count, and add clearer factors for when harms are “reasonably certain to occur,” which matters because it can change whether and how projects are allowed or must be changed to protect endangered species. Read full document →
The Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to remove the “blanket rule” (the old practice where most endangered-species protections automatically applied whenever a species was listed as threatened) from parts 17.31 and 17.71 and instead require a separate, species-specific protection rule each time it lists a new threatened plant or animal; the public can comment on this proposal until December 22, 2025, and the rule will take effect on the final rule’s effective date (not yet set); the Service must follow the new process, and after the final date people, landowners, businesses, and agencies will have to follow whatever species-by-species rules the Service issues (current threatened species listed on or before the final rule’s effective date keep their present protections); this matters because it changes how and when activities like building, farming, or energy projects may need permits or limits to avoid harming particular species. Read full document →
This proposed rule, published November 21, 2025, would change the rules that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA use to decide when plants and animals are listed as endangered or threatened and how they draw “critical habitat” maps by returning to the wording those agencies used in 2019 instead of the changes made in 2024; the public can send comments until December 22, 2025. If the proposal is finalized, the two agencies must follow the revised rules for any new listing, delisting, reclassification, or critical-habitat decisions made after the final rule’s effective date (the rule would not apply to decisions made before that date). The changes narrow how far ahead the agencies look when calling something “threatened” (they must show both the future threats and the species’ response are likely), make clear a species is removed only if it’s extinct, no longer meets the legal definition, or was not really a species, and require the agencies to first focus on areas where a species already lives before adding unoccupied areas as critical habitat and to have “reasonable certainty” that unoccupied areas will help conserve the species; these choices matter to everyday people because they affect how much land gets protected and when builders, farmers, energy companies, and local governments may need permits or change plans for projects. Read full document →
On November 21, 2025 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a change to the rules that govern “critical habitat” for endangered plants and animals by adding a new rule (section 17.90 in 50 CFR part 17) that explains when the Service can leave places out of a critical habitat map because of economic harm, national security, or other real-world impacts; the public can send comments on the proposal until December 22, 2025. The rule applies to how the Fish and Wildlife Service will make future critical-habitat decisions (it does not change rules for the other agency that manages sea life), and it says the Service will be more clear about which areas it might consider excluding, will weigh expert reports and local impacts, and may exclude an area if the benefits of leaving it out are greater—unless leaving it out would cause the species to go extinct. This matters to everyday people because being inside or outside a critical habitat can affect jobs, local projects, energy and land uses, permits, and community plans, so the rule could make it easier for some projects to go forward while still aiming to protect species. Read full document →
On November 21, 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Protection changed the Air Cargo Advance Screening rule (19 CFR 122.48b) so that airlines and other approved shippers (for example, freight forwarders, brokers, and express carriers) must send more information about every air shipment before it is loaded onto a plane to the United States. Four new pieces of information are now always required: the consignee’s (package receiver’s) email and phone, the place the shipment was packed or where it will be picked up, and the “ship to” delivery party; many other items are now conditional (for example, shipper contact details, customer account info, device IP/MAC addresses, product web links, shipping cost, and in some cases a person’s biographic ID data and a photo‑ID copy that CBP may require and keep for up to 3 years). The rule took effect on Nov. 21, 2025, but CBP will phase in full enforcement over 12 months for those making a good‑faith effort; comments are accepted until Jan. 20, 2026. This matters because the extra data is meant to help stop dangerous or hidden items from being loaded on planes and protect people and places, but it may also add costs, privacy questions, and small delays for businesses and online shoppers (CBP estimates annualized costs of about $117 million and that roughly 1.25 billion cargo filings a year are affected). Read full document →

🏛️ Legislative Branch

Congressional Bills

If passed, this law would make the Secretary of State check and update the State Department’s written rules about how the United States deals with Taiwan at least once every five years and, within 90 days after each check, send a report about the update to two Congress committees (Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs). The bill was introduced by Rep. Ann Wagner on February 21, 2025, and was presented to the President on November 21, 2025, so it now awaits the President’s signature or veto. It would affect the State Department and other U.S. agencies that follow its rules, members of Congress who get the reports, and could change how the U.S. works with Taiwan. This matters to everyday people because it would make U.S. policy on Taiwan reviewed on a regular schedule, which could lead to clearer rules and possible changes in trade, security, and official contacts. Read full document →

⚖️ Judicial Branch

No activity today.

📊 Economic Indicators

Bureau of Labor Statistics

In September 2025, pay after adjusting for price changes (“real” pay) showed little improvement: for all workers, real average hourly pay was unchanged from August even though hourly pay rose 0.2% and prices rose 0.3%, and real average weekly pay fell 0.1% over the month; for production and nonsupervisory workers, real average hourly pay fell 0.1% from August as hourly pay rose 0.3% but their price measure also rose 0.3%, while their real average weekly pay rose 0.2% because their average workweek increased 0.3%. Over the year (September 2024–September 2025), real hourly pay rose 0.8% for both groups, with real weekly pay up 0.7% for all workers and 0.8% for production and nonsupervisory workers. This means month to month wages barely kept up with rising prices, so workers’ buying power was mostly flat, but over the year wages are modestly higher—which matters because it affects what families can afford for food, rent, and other everyday costs. Read full document →

Sources Covered Today

White House: Regulatory Relief for Certain Stationary Sources to Promote American Coke Oven Processing Security
Federal Register: Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Interagency Cooperation Regulations
Federal Register: Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Regulations Pertaining to Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants
Federal Register: Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Listing Endangered and Threatened Species and Designating Critical Habitat
Federal Register: Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Regulations for Designating Critical Habitat
Federal Register: Enhanced Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS)
Congressional Bill: HR 1512: Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act
BLS: Real Earnings

All U.S. Government Activity Yesterday:

Presidential actions issued: 1
Regulations: 5
Bills presented to president: 1
Bills that became law: 0
Supreme Court opinions issued: 0
Supreme Court oral arguments: 0

This is your daily record of history unfolding — no spin, just facts. For 342,859,791 people in the United States, this was yesterday.

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