The Trump administration is seeking to abandon a rule that sets tough standards for deadly soot pollution, arguing that the Biden administration did not have authority to set the tighter standard on pollution from tailpipes, smokestacks and other industrial sources.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalised a rule last year that imposed strict standards for soot pollution, saying that reducing fine particle matter from motor vehicles and industrial sources could prevent thousands of premature deaths a year. Twenty-five Republican-led states and a host of business groups filed lawsuits seeking to block the rule in court.
In a court filing this week, the EPA essentially took the side of the challengers, saying the Biden-era rule was done “without the rigorous, stepwise process that Congress required” and was therefore unlawful. Vacating the Biden-era rule would revert the soot standard to a level established a dozen years ago under the Obama administration.
Environmental groups said the agency’s action threatens public health and undermines its obligations under the Clean Air Act. “EPA’s motion is a blatant attempt to avoid legal requirements for a rollback, in this case for one of the most impactful actions the agency has taken in recent years to protect public health,” said Hayden Hashimoto, an attorney at the non-profit Clean Air Task Force.
The Biden rule set maximum levels of nine micrograms of fine particle pollution per cubic meter of air, down from 12 micrograms established under Barack Obama. The EPA said in creating the rule that the new standard would avoid 800,000 cases of asthma symptoms, 2,000 hospital visits and 4,500 premature deaths, adding up to about $46bn in health benefits in 2032.
