EPA officials, conceding a failure to follow their own procedures, are moving to reinstate an Ohio air quality safeguard scrapped in 2020 at the surreptitious prompting of an industry lawyer.
In a newly proposed rule, EPA’s Chicago-based Region 5 office seeks to restore an “air nuisance rule” to the state’s clean air plan that had furnished Ohioans a legal foothold to sue polluting businesses in federal court. In explaining its latest about-face, EPA says that it “failed to adequately consider” the air nuisance rule’s use in enforcing National Ambient Air Quality Standards and also did not conduct an anti-backsliding analysis of the potential impact.
a newly proposed rule
The reversal comes a year after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to allow the agency to revisit the 2020 decision in response to a lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club and other challengers.
to allow the agency
“We’re quite pleased,” Sierra Club attorney Megan Wachspress said in a Wednesday interview. Assuming that EPA follows through and restores the air nuisance rule, Wachspress said, Ohioans suffering pollution will again be able to “vindicate their rights and protect themselves.”
