Sixteen AGs Filed Motion to Intervene to Defend Mercury and Air Toxics Standards Against Industry Challenge

JUNE 22, 2020

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey led a coalition of 16 attorneys general in filing a motion to intervene to defend the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) against a challenge brought by the coal company Westmoreland Holdings LLC. The AGs emphasized that they sought to intervene in the litigation “to advance [their] compelling interests in preserving federal limits on power plant hazardous air pollution, and to maintain the long-sought-after regulations critical to protecting our residents’ health and preventing toxic contamination of our territories.” The AGs also noted that they intend to “make arguments to defend against Westmoreland’s challenge that EPA likely cannot or will not assert,” because the EPA recently completed a controversial and legally vulnerable withdrawal of its determination that the MATS rule is “appropriate and necessary” under the Clean Air Act.