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AG JANET MILLS JOINS LAWSUIT AGAINST TRUMP EPA FOR STALLING ACTION ON CLEAN AIR
August 1, 2017
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Tim Feeley Date: August 1, 2017 Telephone: (207) 626-8887
AUGUSTA ? Attorney General Janet T. Mills today filed a lawsuit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Administrator Scott Pruitt for illegally stalling the designation of areas impacted by unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone (known as smog) ? vital to protecting Americans from dangerous pollution.
According to the American Lung Association, over 115 million Americans breathe harmful levels of ozone, which often travels far distances from other states with less stringent clean air regulations. The designations, which EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt recently delayed for one year, play a key role under the Clean Air Act in addressing smog?s serious threat to public health, triggering requirements for state-specific plans and deadlines to reduce pollution in the designated areas.
Today?s suit was filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by the Attorneys General of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, and the District of Columbia.
?The people of Maine have a great deal at stake in this case,? said Attorney General Mills. ?The health of our citizens, the health of our environment and the health of our economy will be severely threatened by this unlawful delay. Maine is geographically positioned to bear the brunt of lax clean air standards from polluters to our west. I will not stand for this, or any other, President putting Midwest polluters? bottom-line ahead of the health and well-being of the people of Maine.?
The American Lung Association estimates that more than 24,000 kids and 120,000 adults in Maine suffer from asthma and another 87,000 adults have COPD.
The coalition of Attorneys General is challenging EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt?s one-year delay in designating areas with unhealthy levels of smog as violating the requirements of the Clean Air Act, and as arbitrary and capricious.
In October 2015, the EPA revised the national air quality standards for smog, strengthening those standards. The Clean Air Act requires the Agency, within two years after issuance of new or revised standards, to designate areas of the county that are in ?attainment? or ?non-attainment? with these public health and welfare standards. In the case of the 2015 smog standards, EPA was required to issue attainment or non-attainment designations by October 1, 2017. However, on June 28, 2017, EPA Administrator Pruitt published a notice stalling the deadline for the smog designations for all areas in the country for one year ? to October 1, 2018.
The designation of areas for national air quality standards is a key statutory obligation under the Clean Air Act ? and for protecting the public?s health. For areas designated as in non-attainment for the standards, states must adopt ?implementation plans? ? a collection of actions that the state will undertake to reduce pollution in order to ensure standards will be met in those areas. The deadlines for submitting implementation plans ? and for ensuring that air quality standards are met within designated areas ? are both directly keyed to the date of EPA designations.
According to EPA, the 2015 updated smog standards will improve public health protection ? particularly for at-risk groups, including children, older adults, people of all ages who have lung diseases such as asthma, and people who are active outdoors, especially outdoor workers. In fact, the Agency conservatively estimated that meeting the new smog standards would result in net annual public health benefits of up to $4.5 billion starting in 2025 (not including California), while also preventing approximately: ? 316 to 660 premature deaths; ? 230,000 asthma attacks in children; ? 160,000 missed school days; ? 28,000 missed work days; ? 630 asthma-related emergency room visits; and ? 340 cases of acute bronchitis in children.
Smog forms when nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and carbon monoxide emitted from power plants, motor vehicles, factories, refineries, and other sources react under suitable conditions. Because these reactions occur in the atmosphere, smog can form far from where its precursor gases are emitted and, once formed, smog can travel far distances. That is why, despite enacting stringent in-state controls on sources of these pollutants, many states ? including Maine ? are not, alone, able to meet federal health-based air quality standards for smog.
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16 Attorneys General Challenge EPA?s Illegal One-Year Delay in Protecting Public?s Health from Dangerous Smog Pollution
