EPA is asking a federal court for a 60-day freeze on proceedings in litigation over the Biden administration’s decision last year to tighten a key soot exposure standard.
If granted, the freeze could be a first step under President Donald Trump to partially roll back or reverse that decision.
The freeze is warranted “because courts have long recognized that agencies may generally review and, if appropriate, revise their past decisions,” attorneys for EPA wrote in the motion filed Tuesday afternoon with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
A three-judge panel heard oral arguments in the litigation in mid-December, with questions suggesting that they were poised to uphold the rule issued a year ago strengthening the annual soot standard from 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air to 9 micrograms.
