{"id":87780,"date":"2017-12-27T17:33:14","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T22:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=87780"},"modified":"2017-12-26T18:35:26","modified_gmt":"2017-12-26T23:35:26","slug":"schneiderman-sues-trump-epa-to-protect-new-yorkers-from-out-of-state-air-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=87780","title":{"rendered":"Schneiderman sues Trump EPA to protect New Yorkers from out-of-state air pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"AG Schneiderman Leads 8 AGs in Suit Challenging EPA\u2019s Refusal to Require Upwind States to Control Smog Pollution that Blows into New York and Northeast States<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

At Least One in Three New Yorkers Breathe Unhealthy Levels of Smog \u2013 Leading to Dire Health Issues<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, leading a coalition of eight Attorneys General, filed a lawsuit today against the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to force action under the Clean Air Act to ensure upwind states adequately control the pollution that blows into New York and other downwind states.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019<\/span>s harmful levels of smog.<\/p>\n

\u201cMillions of New Yorkers are breathing unhealthy air as smog pollution continues to pour in from other states,\u201d\u00a0Attorney General Schneiderman\u00a0said.\u00a0 \u201cThe federal government has a fundamental responsibility to act. Yet the Trump EPA has abandoned its responsibilities \u2013 repeatedly failing to act to control smog pollution that jeopardizes New Yorkers\u2019 health. Attorneys General will continue to act to protect those we serve.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Specifically, the suit challenges the EPA\u2019s denial of a petition that New York and several other states filed in late 2013 for the Agency to add nine additional states to the \u201cOzone Transport Region,\u201d a group of states established under the federal Clean Air Act that must act in concert to reduce smog pollution within the region.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joining Attorney General Schneiderman in the suit are the Attorneys General of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reducing smog levels is vital to protecting the health of New Yorkers.\u00a0\u00a0Elevated levels of smog can cause a host of significant health effects, including coughing, throat irritation, lung tissue damage, and the aggravation of existing medical conditions, such as asthma, bronchitis, heart disease, and emphysema.\u00a0According to the American Lung Association\u2019s \u201c2017 State of the Air Report,\u201d the New York City metropolitan area ranks as the 9th<\/sup>\u00a0most smog-polluted city in the nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Congress created the Ozone Transport Region to help states address pervasive smog problems in the northeastern United States.\u00a0By statute, the Region consists of 11 states \u2013 Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont \u2013 and the District of Columbia metropolitan area.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In December 2013, New York and other northeastern states submitted a petition under the Clean Air Act asking EPA to add nine additional states shown or projected through modelling and analysis to contribute to violations of federal smog standards in the Ozone Transport Region.\u00a0These nine states are Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.\u00a0When EPA took no action on that petition, a coalition of states led by\u00a0Attorney General Schneiderman filed suit against the EPA to compel it to act<\/a>.Attorney General Schneiderman and the coalition of states subsequently negotiated a consent decree that required EPA to approve or disapprove the petition no later than October 27, 2017.\u00a0On that date, Trump EPA Administrator Pruitt denied the states\u2019 Ozone Transport Region petition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s suit<\/a>,\u00a0which was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, asks the court to review Administrator Pruitt\u2019s denial of the petition.\u00a0The coalition will ask the court to determine that the denial is unlawful and to vacate it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ozone Transport Region<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

Each state within the Ozone Transport Region must develop and implement plans that achieve controls on pollutants that contribute to the formation of smog. However, despite enacting stringent in-state controls on sources of these pollutants, many states within the Region \u2013 including New York \u2013 are not able to meet federal health-based air quality standards for smog, significantly due to upwind smog pollution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Modeling and analysis performed by EPA, as well as by states, has shown that interstate transport of air pollution from upwind states outside of the Ozone Transport Region \u2013including Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia \u2013 contributes significantly to violations of the 2008 federal smog standard within the Ozone Transport Region. In addition, preliminary modeling demonstrates that emissions in these states, as well as North Carolina, are projected to contribute to violations of the recently updated 2015 federal smog standard in the Region.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

States outside and upwind of the Region are not required to \u2013 and generally do not \u2013 impose controls as stringent as those required of those within the Region. However, the federal Clean Air Act provides for states to petition EPA to add states to the Ozone Transport Region, and for EPA to add states when the Agency has reason to believe that the interstate transport of air pollution from them significantly contributes to exceedances of the federal standards for smog in the Region.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This matter is being handled for the Attorney General\u2019s Environmental Protection Bureau by Assistant Attorney General Claiborne Walthall, Affirmative Section Chief Morgan A. Costello, and Senior Counsel Michael J. Myers. The Bureau is led by Bureau Chief Lemuel M. Srolovic and is part of the Division of Social Justice, which is led by Executive Deputy Attorney General for Social Justice Alvin Bragg.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AG Schneiderman Leads 8 AGs in Suit Challenging EPA\u2019s Refusal to Require Upwind States to Control Smog Pollution that Blows into New York and Northeast States At Least One in Three New Yorkers Breathe Unhealthy Levels of Smog \u2013 Leading to Dire Health Issues Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, leading a coalition of eight Attorneys […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23810,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellbeing","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/70131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}