(Washington, D.C. – November 20, 2024) EPA’s strengthened Mercury and Air Toxics Standards are achievable, affordable, legally sound, and vital for protecting public health from potentially deadly air pollution, a broad group of health and environmental groups – including Environmental Defense Fund – has told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Fossil fuel companies and a group of states led by North Dakota and West Virginia have sued to overturn the strengthened Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which reduce toxic pollution spewed into our air from coal-fired power plants.
EDF and its allied groups filed a brief with the court last night defending the standards. In their brief the groups argue that the challenge to the standards contradicts the Clean Air Act and controlling D.C. Circuit precedent, as well as ignoring Congress’s deliberate decision in establishing the regulatory framework that EPA must implement.
