The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) announced that it joined a coalition of other major business trade associations to file suit in the D.C. Circuit. The coalition looks to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s final rule that lowers the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) to 9 micrograms per cubic meter.
The EPA finalized this provision, a 25% reduction from the current standard effective on a truncated timeline of 60 days, outside of the Clean Air Act’s normal five-year review cycle.
“In pursuing this discretionary reconsideration rule, the EPA should have considered the tremendous costs and burdens of a lower PM2.5 standard,” NAM Chief Legal Officer Linda Kelly said. “Instead, by plowing ahead with a new standard that is vastly more restrictive than any other national standard, the agency not only departs significantly from the traditional NAAQS process, but also gravely undermines the Biden administration’s manufacturing agenda, stifling manufacturing investment, infrastructure development and job creation in communities across the country.
"The NAM Legal Center is filing suit to protect manufacturers’ ability to obtain permits, expand facilities and pursue long-term investment plans, and defend our country’s competitive advantage.”
The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to review the NAAQS every five years to determine whether the PM2.5 standard should be retained or revised. In December 2020, following a complete review of the PM NAAQS, the EPA decided to retain the PM2.5 standard of 12 micrograms per cubic meter. However, in June 2021, the agency announced it would reconsider that decision.
