In a court filing, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) argued that the Biden-era rule tightening limits was procedurally flawed and therefore should be vacated.
It said that the Biden administration took a “shortcut,” making the rule stricter “without the rigorous, stepwise process that Congress required.”
“EPA now confesses error and urges this Court to vacate the Rule,” the agency said.
The Biden administration tightened the soot pollution limit to 9 micrograms per cubic meter. The Trump administration’s request would restore a looser standard of 12 micrograms per cubic meter that was first put in place by the Obama administration and upheld by the first Trump administration.
The administration had already indicated that it hoped to overturn the Biden-era rule, putting it on a hit list of regulations earlier this year and proclaiming “the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen.”
Exposure to soot pollution, also known as fine particulate matter, has been linked to premature deaths, heart attacks and asthma.
When it tightened the standards for soot pollution last year, the Biden administration estimated that it would prevent as many as 4,500 premature deaths in 2032, the first year that states would have been required to meet the standard.
Read more at TheHill.com
