California, other states sue feds over air quality

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — California and a host of other states sued the Donald Trump administration on Friday, claiming it has failed to implement a key part of the Clean Air Act.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the act requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to designate areas across the country as in attainment or nonattainment for fine particulate matter or soot. The standards are meant to protect people from significant health impacts, including cardiovascular disease, respiratory damage and death.

However, the EPA hasn’t made those designations, with impacts on state initiatives to fight pollution, said Bonta, a Democrat.

“This is about something simple — the air we breathe,” Bonta said Friday at a news conference announcing the suit.

The states have asked a Northern District of California judge to declare the EPA violated the act and order it to make the required designations within 150 days of their order. It’s the 67th suit California has filed or joined against Trump since he retook the White House last year.

Soot is a deadly pollutant that comes from several sources, including combustion engines, factories and construction sites. It’s small and can enter people’s lungs, moving from there to other organs. That can cause a series of health issues, which disproportionately impact lower-income communities and communities of color, Bonta said.

“They don’t just fall to the ground,” Bonta said. “They enter our lungs [and] our bloodstream.”

Congress in 2024 strengthened the Clean Air Act with national ambient air quality standards. The standards are meant to protect the public — but they can’t completely be implemented until the EPA makes its attainment and nonattainment designations, Bonta said.

The EPA had a February deadline to create the designations. The states then made their objections and waited a required 60 days before filing suit, he added.

Bonta said the EPA has tried denying the requirement is part of the law. It’s also asked a federal judge to remove the standard. But “EPA still has a legal obligation to implement it,” he argued.

The federal rules are important to states because they have the main responsibility of stopping air pollution at its source. The designations open doors to tools created by the Clean Air Act which help them prevent the health impacts of soot and remove some of the financial cost, the attorney general said.

Failing to make the designations injures the states, which gives them standing. It not only takes away states’ ability to tap enforcement mechanisms in federal court against polluters, it also hurts local and state governments that would have attainment status but don’t because they’re downwind of nonattainment areas, Bonta said.

The attorney general in the suit notes that the designations allow some states to write pollution-control plans. Once the EPA approves state implementation plans, the provisions are enforceable through lawsuits filed by people against polluters.

California knows what’s at stake, Bonta noted, as it has some of the highest pollution in the nation. He pointed to the San Joaquin Valley. Having the designations in place would prevent thousands of premature deaths and emergency room visits, as well as create billions of dollars in health benefits.

Without those designations, states must continue to spend more resources to gather air quality data that’s sent to the EPA. That’s in addition to the cost of states coping with increased deaths, heart and lung diseases, asthma cases and emergency room visits.

“They have to follow the law. Period. Full stop. End of story,” Bonta said, adding: “Unfortunately, Trump has broken the law once again.”

Contacted by Courthouse News, an EPA spokesperson said the agency doesn’t comment on current or pending litigation.