{"id":24595,"date":"2024-03-07T02:32:47","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T08:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=24595"},"modified":"2024-03-07T02:32:56","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T08:32:56","slug":"us-republican-states-industry-groups-challenge-epas-new-soot-pollution-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=24595","title":{"rendered":"US Republican states, industry groups challenge EPA&#8217;s new soot pollution rule"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">March 6 (Reuters) &#8211; Republican-led states and industry groups on Wednesday filed three lawsuits challenging a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule that toughens air quality standards for soot pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The lawsuits were filed in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by a variety of industry groups and 25 states including Texas, Kentucky and West Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The lawsuits will seek to block an EPA rule&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/environment\/us-strengthens-national-soot-standards-industry-objects-2024-02-07\/\"><u>finalized last month<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;that lowered the average allowable concentration of fine particulate matter, or soot, in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, whose state is co-leading with West Virginia one of the lawsuits filed on behalf of 24 states, said in a statement that the standards would raise costs for manufacturers, utilities and families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">&#8220;This rule will drive jobs and investment out of Kentucky and overseas, leaving employers and hardworking families to pay the price,&#8221; Coleman said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Texas filed its own lawsuit, while industry groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers filed the third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Soot, or fine particulate matter, comes from sources ranging from power plants to vehicle tailpipes to construction sites. It causes lung and heart damage and has been found to disproportionately affect low-income communities, according to the EPA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The EPA&#8217;s rule, which does not directly impose pollution controls on specific industries, strengthened the standards for soot for the first time in over a decade, lowering the allowable concentration of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns, or PM 2.5, from 12 to 9 micrograms per cubic meter(\u00b5g\/m3) on average per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The EPA estimated the new rules will yield $46 billion in health benefits in 2032.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Opponents have claimed that the rules could block permitting for new manufacturing facilities and stop new infrastructure construction, among other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/us-republican-states-industry-groups-challenge-epas-new-soot-pollution-rule-2024-03-07\/\">Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 6 (Reuters) &#8211; Republican-led states and industry groups on Wednesday filed three lawsuits challenging a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule that toughens air quality standards for soot pollution. The lawsuits were filed in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by a variety of industry groups and 25 states including Texas, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":24596,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5784],"tags":[2523,27057,4102,21064,27056,1375,21056],"class_list":["post-24595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-epa","tag-industry-groups","tag-pollution","tag-republican","tag-soot","tag-state","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24597,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24595\/revisions\/24597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}