Eleven states sue EPA to force stricter PM standards
A coalition of 11 states led by the state of New York, have taken legal action after the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) failed to meet an October 2011 deadline to revise the existing air quality standards for fine particulate matter pollution (PM2.5), as required by the federal Clean Air Act. The lawsuit asks the court to order the EPA to adopt new air pollution standards promptly and by a fixed date.
The federal Clean Air Act requires the EPA every five years to review and, if warranted by advances in public health science, revise the national air quality standards for common air pollutants. EPA last revised the standards in 2006. New York and 15 other states challenged those standards as lax, alleging that they were adopted against the advice of EPA’s own air pollution experts and the agency’s independent scientific advisors.
Source: Environmental News Service, 14 February 2012