RI to Sue Bush EPA For Adopting Lax Air Pollution Standards

Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch announced that Rhode Island has joined a coalition of 13 other states, New York City, and Washington, DC, in suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to protect the public health and the environment.

Lynch said that the EPA and the Bush Administration are in violation of the Clean Air Act by having set weak standards that do not effectively regulate the amount of ground-level ozone air pollution allowed in the atmosphere.

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In March, the EPA acted against specific recommendations of its own independent science advisors and adopted two new and substantially weaker standards for regulating ground-level ozone pollution, commonly known as smog. White House officials took an active role in making one of the standards far weaker than the scientifically recommended levels.

“We have too many important matters to attend to without also having to defend the environment and our public health against the misguided actions of the Bush Administration’s so-called Environmental Protection Agency,” Lynch said. “But as ozone levels rise with the approaching summer months, this lawsuit is necessary to draw EPA’s attention back to where it should be focused — on the health of our seniors and children and on the members of our communities most vulnerable to ground-level ozone pollution’s damaging effects.”

The federal Clean Air Act requires the EPA to regularly review and update two types of standards, known as primary and secondary standards, for the pollutants it regulates in our air. The primary standard sets the maximum smog levels that can be in the air before harming public health in the form of illnesses such as chronic lung disease and asthma attacks and, in some cases, even premature death. The secondary smog standard sets the maximum smog levels that can be in the air before damaging public welfare, such as reducing crop productivity and harming forests, plants, and animals.

The suit was filed in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday, May 27th. In addition to Rhode Island, the states and states agencies that are parties to the suit are New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, New York City, and the District of Columbia. The coalition will ask the Court to order the EPA to adopt standards that will actually be protective.

Source: Rhode Island Attorney General