Document B8BZEXOKo9o3xBO29oRq8pZoX

M FREEPORT-MCMORAN Administrator Zeldin March 31, 2025 Page 2 estimates that the pollution controls required to comply with the main requirements of the Copper Rule will cost in the range of 5237 million to 5309 million or higher and will reduce only between 0.2 and 2.2 tons per year of metal hazardous air pollution ("HAP"). Using the annualized capital and operating cost approach under the EPA's Air Pollution Cost Control Manual, these controls will cost between $21 million and $164 million per ton of metal IIAP removed. That figure is between 16 and 123 times higher than the EPA's long-established cost-effectiveness limit of. 51.3 million per ton metal HAP.' Such radical cost-ineffectiveness renders the required technology "unavailable" under any commonsense understanding of the term. This radical cost ineffectiveness is compounded by the absolute cost of compliance, which will run into the hundreds of millions ofciollars.4 An inability to maintain or increase throughput at the Miami Smelter a potential outcome given the Copper Rule's radical cost-ineffectiveness would have significant impacts on the domestic copper supply chain to the detriment of national security interests of the United States. A two-year compliance extension is in the national security interests of the United States because of the importance of domestically sourced copper The Miami Smelter is one of only two primary copper smelters left in operation in the United States and is a key asset that supports Freeport-McMoRan Inc.'s production of same 70 percent of the nation's domestic copper. The President has recognized that copper is "a critical material essential to the national security, economic strength, and industrial resilience of the United States."' Copper plays a key role in national defense, energy production, building construction, transportation equipment, industrial machinery and equipment, advanced electronics, and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. Independent analysts are reasonably concerned that as soon as 2035, global copper production may fall short of global demand by some 12 billion pounds annually.' At present, the nation's smelting and refining capacity is critically low, has long been in decline, and lags significantly behind that of global competitors. As a result, the United States See 88 Fed. Reg. 55858, 55879 (Aug. 16. 2023) (coke oven proposed NESIIAP revisions). These engineering-based cost estimates are much higher than the EPA anticipated during rule development. FMMI has expressed its longstanding objections to the Copper Rule including its outlandish compliance costs through its public comments, its petition for reconsideration, and its petition for judicial review of the final rule. Exec. Order No. 14220, Addressing the threat to National .Securtyfrom Imports of Copper, 90 Fed. Reg. 11001 (Feb. 25. 2025); .see cils'o Exec. Order No. 14,241. Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production, 90 Fcd. Reg. 13673 (Mar. 20, 2025). S&P Global, the Future of Copper: Will the Looming Supply Gap Short-Circuit the L-nergy transition? 46 (2022), https://perma.cc/FGD2-6K1 If I [hereinafter Future gfC'opperl. Sierra Club FOIA 2025-EPA-04883 ED_018388_00000153-00002 SC_EVERSPLIT0005905