Seventeen AGs Filed Comments Urging EPA to Strengthen Regulations on Particulate Matter

New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of 17 attorneys general in filing comments in “strong opposition” to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed decision to not amend National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter. The comments emphasized that the “weight of new scientific evidence and other analyses regarding harm to health from particulate matter since the last review... demonstrates the need to strengthen those standards in order to meet the [Clean Air] Act’s requirement to protect public health and welfare.” The comments also warned that the EPA’s assertion that its proposed decision will not cause disproportionate harm to environmental justice communities is “egregious and wholly contradicted by the record.” The comments noted that, contrary to the EPA’s assertion that “uncertainty in the evidence supports leaving the current standards unchanged,” the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to “establish more protective standards in the presence of uncertainty in order to provide the requisite margin of safety against harmful effects.”