{"id":87181,"date":"2017-12-05T17:32:26","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T22:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=87181"},"modified":"2017-12-05T18:53:10","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T23:53:10","slug":"schneiderman-leads-15-ags-in-new-lawsuit-against-trump-epa-for-flouting-clean-air-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=87181","title":{"rendered":"Schneiderman leads 15 AGs in new lawsuit against Trump EPA for flouting clean air requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Attorneys General Sue EPA For Failing To Designate Areas With Unhealthy Levels of Smog \u2013 The Clean Air Act\u2019s \u201cTrigger\u201d For Required Reductions In This Dangerous Air Pollution<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

115 Million Americans \u2013 Including At Least 1 In 3 New Yorkers \u2013 Breathe Air with Harmful Levels of Smog, Which Is Often Created By Pollution Emitted In Other States<\/em><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Attaining National Smog Standards Would Prevent Up To 660 Premature Deaths, 230,000 Asthma Attacks in Kids<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, leading a coalition of 15 state Attorneys General, today filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt for failing to meet the Clean Air Act\u2019s statutory deadline for designating areas of the country impacted by unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone (commonly referred to as smog).<\/p>\n

\u201cOver and over again, the Trump EPA puts polluters before its responsibility to protect the health and safety of New Yorkers,\u201d said\u00a0Schneiderman. \u201cOver 115 million Americans \u2013 including at least one in three New Yorkers \u2013 are breathing dangerous levels of smog pollution. By continuing to ignore its legal obligations to cut this dangerous pollution, the Trump EPA is turning a blind eye to public health \u2013 and the law.\u00a0Attorneys General will continue to fight back to protect our residents and our states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to read the lawsuit<\/a>,\u00a0which was filed by the Attorneys General of\u00a0New York, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota (by and through its Minnesota Pollution Control Agency), Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.<\/p>\n

With this suit, the coalition makes good on its pledge to sue the EPA if it failed to meet this key statutory and public health requirement.\u00a0 In August, Attorney General Schneiderman and a coalition of Attorneys General sued the EPA for illegally delaying the designations; the next day,\u00a0the EPA reversed course and withdrew the delay<\/a>. However, the EPA missed the statutory deadline of October 1st\u00a0for designation and,\u00a0four days later, the coalition\u00a0filed a notice of intent to sue the Agency for failing to issue the required designations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reducing smog levels is vital to protecting public health.\u00a0 At least one in three New Yorkers breathe air with unhealthy levels of smog pollution, with some analyses placing it as high as two in three New Yorkers (approximately 12.7 million people). The EPA\u2019s own studies demonstrate that pollution from states upwind of New York contributes substantially to the state\u2019s dangerous smog problem.\u00a0\u00a0The designation of areas with unhealthy smog levels plays a key role under the Clean Air Act in addressing the pollutant\u2019s severe harms to public health, triggering requirements for state-specific plans and deadlines to reduce pollution in the designated areas.<\/p>\n

In October 2015, the EPA revised and strengthened the national air quality standards for smog. The Clean Air Act requires the Agency,\u00a0within two years\u00a0after issuance of new or revised standards, to designate areas of the county that are in \u201cattainment\u201d or \u201cnon-attainment\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0Shortly thereafter, on Aug. 1, Schneiderman and a coalition of 16 Attorneys General sued the EPA for illegally delaying the designations.\u00a0The next day, EPA abruptly reversed course and announced it was withdrawing the designations delay, although it remained equivocal on whether it would meet the Oct. 1\u00a0deadline.<\/p>\n

The October 1, 2017, deadline then passed without EPA making any of the required designations, in violation of the Clean Air Act.\u00a0 A few days later, the coalition notified EPA of its intention to sue if the agency failed to correct the violation\u00a0within 60 days. On November 6, 2017, EPA issued designations for some areas of the country, but failed to make any \u201cnon-attainment\u201d area designations, which are the designations that trigger smog reduction measures to improve air quality and comply with the standards.<\/p>\n

The areas EPA failed to designate include many densely populated areas \u2013 such as New York City, as well as Nassau and Suffolk Counties \u2013 that suffer from the highest levels of smog.\u00a0In fact, more than half of the U.S. population lives in the undesignated areas.\u00a0The 60-day notice period expired today, December 5th, without the EPA issuing all of the statutorily-required designations.<\/p>\n

The designation of areas for national air quality standards is a key statutory obligation under the Clean Air Act \u2013 and vital to protecting the public\u2019s health.\u00a0For areas designated as in non-attainment for the standards, states must adopt \u201cimplementation plans\u201d \u2013 a collection of actions that the state will undertake to reduce pollution in order to ensure standards will be met in those areas.\u00a0The deadlines for submitting implementation plans \u2013 and for ensuring that air quality standards are met within designated areas \u2013 are both directly keyed to the date of EPA designations. EPA\u2019s failure to timely designate nonattainment areas delays the Clean Air Act\u2019s requirements for measures to reduce pollution in these areas, thus resulting in further harm to public health.<\/p>\n

According to EPA, the 2015 updated smog standards will improve public health protection \u2013 particularly for at-risk groups such as children, older adults, people of all ages who have lung diseases like asthma, and people who are active outdoors, especially outdoor workers.\u00a0In fact, the EPA 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),\u00a0while also preventing approximately:<\/p>\n