A coalition of 25 states is suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over a new rule, which the plaintiff states claim will impose “unworkable emissions standards on passenger cars, light-duty trucks and medium-duty vehicles.” The new rule sets strict limits on emissions of “soot” from vehicle tailpipes and industrial smokestacks.
Texas has filed a separate lawsuit against the same EPA rule, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers have also filed suit.
Led by Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and West Virginia AG Patrick Morrisey, the states claim that the new regulation could put up to 30 percent of all United States counties out of compliance and, effectively, block new economic activity. They further believe that the rule is part of a forced switch to less-reliable electric vehicles.
The two AGs were joined by counterparts in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
The new rule sets an unrealistic limit on the allowable concentration of particulate matter (aka soot) smaller than 2.5 microns (PM 2.5), reducing it from 12 to 9 micrograms per cubic meter. The new rule does not target specific industries but the total air quality for a county.
All of this for the sake of a nonexistent climate crisis.
“The Biden Administration is willing to sacrifice the American auto industry and its workers in service of its radical green agenda. We just aren’t buying it. Demand for EVs continues to fall, and even those who want to buy one can’t afford it amid historic inflation,” Coleman said in statement. “For the nearly 58,000 auto workers who clock in every day in Louisville, Bowling Green, Georgetown and more, we will keep fighting President Biden’s illegal mandates that put the American Dream farther out of reach.”
According to Coleman, the new rule would not “improve public health, but it would put as many as 30% of all U.S. counties out of compliance under federal law, leading to aggressive new permitting requirements that could effectively block new economic activity.”
Texas AG Ken Paxton agreed in a March statement.
“This new rule improperly imposes a huge burden with no scientific basis,” Paxton said. “I will always use every available avenue to block Biden’s extremist climate agenda, especially when federal policy undermines Texas industry and destroys Texas jobs.”
Some believe that the new regulation unfairly targets agricultural areas.
“Kentucky is an agriculture state, and EVs aren’t tough enough to keep up with our farmers,” said Jonathan Shell, Kentucky’s agriculture commissioner. “We put a lot of miles on the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s vehicles to serve rural communities, and we can’t stop on the side of the road to plug in. The Biden Administration has it out for rural America, and I’m proud Kentucky is leading the fight to stop them.”
The EPA claims that the new rule will improve health and, ultimately, be worth $46 billion in net health benefits by 2032. The agency also asserts that the new rule would be a huge benefit to children, older adults, and those with heart problems and other chronic pulmonary conditions.
According to EPA administrator Michael Regan, the new rule “really does represent what the Biden-Harris administration is all about, which is understanding that healthy people equal a healthy economy. We do not have to sacrifice people to have a prosperous and booming economy.”
The National Association of Manufacturers claims that Biden and the EPA are hyper-focused on climate change and are ignoring the real-life consequences of their rule changes.
“In pursuing this discretionary reconsideration rule, the EPA should have considered the tremendous costs and burdens of a lower PM2.5 standard,” said Linda Kelly, the group’s chief legal officer. “Instead, by plowing ahead with a new standard that is vastly more restrictive than any other national standard, including that set by the EU, the agency not only departs significantly from the traditional [National Ambient Air Quality Standards] process, but also gravely undermines the Biden administration’s manufacturing agenda.”
Being seen as “serious” about climate change is far more important to the Biden administration than actual American jobs. This draconian and unreasonable new EPA rule tells you all you need to know about the Biden agenda — American citizens always take a back seat to the climate zealots.
