Two environmental groups that sued to force EPA action on smog cleanup in the Phoenix area are bashing the agency’s proposal to instead seek a waiver that pins the blame on international pollution.
“It’s just a shame,” said Benjamin Rankin, an associate attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, in an interview.
In a lawsuit filed in April, the group accused EPA of unlawful foot-dragging in deciding whether to downgrade the sprawling southern Arizona region’s compliance status with the agency’s latest standard for ground-level ozone, the main ingredient in smog. That step would require new measures to further cut emissions of smog-forming pollutants, which are closely associated with production and consumption of fossil fuels.
The agency has now agreed to make that decision by February under a consent decree signed Thursday by U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam of the Northern District of California. Earlier this week, however, EPA telegraphed plans to sidestep a downgrade on the grounds that the Phoenix area would have met the 70 parts per billion ozone standard “but for emissions emanating from outside the United States.”
