Air Permitting Improvements to Protect National Security Act of 2025

Permit flex for semiconductor and mineral plants

This bill would let states allow new ways to meet air pollution offset rules for certain big new or changed factories. It would apply only to advanced manufacturing facilities that make semiconductors or semiconductor equipment, and to critical mineral facilities that extract, process, refine, or mill minerals named by the Interior Secretary. Owners would have to show each year that they tried all reasonable ways to obtain offsets and that sufficient offsets were not available. States would be able to require other measures to make up for extra pollution or require an emissions fee instead. The fee would be no greater than 1.5 times the area's average cost of stationary source control measures over the prior 3 years, and states would have to use collected fees to maximize local pollution reductions. The bill would also let the President waive offset requirements, in whole or in part, for these facilities when the President finds a waiver serves national security; the President would not be allowed to delegate that decision.