A federal judge Friday ordered EPA to act relatively quickly to decide which parts of the U.S. do not meet the 2024 particulate matter standard.
Those decisions — on which the Trump administration had been dragging its feet — will require EPA to act by Feb. 7 and trigger additional deadlines for states with poor air quality to curb pollution.
The ruling comes as much of the U.S. faces air quality alarms due to soot from Canadian wildfires, though the currently choked skies from the Midwest to the East Coast won’t factor into EPA’s decision-making here, which is based on air quality through 2025.
The order from Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California firmly rejected arguments from EPA that it shouldn’t be forced to act right now, and in any event would need another year and a half to get the job done.
