Washington– The Trump administration on Wednesday took a step toward rolling back a rule limiting smokestack emissions that burden downwind areas in neighboring states.
So called The “good neighbor” rule. It is one of dozens of regulations that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has targeted to review or repeal. supreme court It ruled in 2024 that the EPA couldn’t enforce it The rule, which aims to prevent coal-fired power plants and other industrial sites from adding significantly to air pollution across state lines.
The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it is proposing to approve plans by eight states to regulate ozone air pollution as they see fit. If completed, the agency said, states “will no longer need to worry about another Good Neighbor Plan” provided the federal government approves it.
The affected states are Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico and Tennessee. Under President Joe Biden, the EPA has declined or suggested not approving ozone plans submitted by all those states. Under Biden, the agency said state plans did not adequately control ozone emissions moving across state lines.
Under President Donald Trump, the EPA is committed to promoting what Zeldin called “cooperative federalism” that allows states to decide for themselves how to meet air pollution goals, Zeldin said Wednesday.
“Today, we are taking an important step to undo a Biden administration rule that treats our state partners unfairly,” Zeldin said in a statement. If the EPA’s plan is completed, he said, it will ensure that “these states will be able to provide clean air now to their communities, rather than waiting for overly burdensome federal requirements years from now.”
Zeldin criticized what he said was the agency’s “heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all federal mandate” under Biden to address air pollution caused by ozone that forms smog.
Under the proposal announced Wednesday, “EPA finds that the eight (state plans) have sufficient data demonstrating that these states do not interfere with achieving ozone” required by national ambient air quality standards, the agency said. The action also signals EPA’s intent to withdraw proposed corrections to state plans submitted by Iowa and Kansas.
In the near future, the EPA intends to take separate action to address “interstate transfer” obligations for the remaining states included in the final “Good Neighbor Plan” under Biden, the agency said.
Environmental groups said the EPA’s proposal would reward states for being bad to their neighbors. Air pollution from industrial Midwestern states like Indiana and Ohio often reaches East Coast states like Connecticut and Delaware.
“Once again, Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin are choosing to protect old, dirty, expensive coal plants and other industrial polluters at the expense of strong federal clean air protections that address interstate pollution problems,” said Sierra Club attorney Zachary Fabish.
Letting states off the hook while their pollution continues to harm air quality in neighboring states is dangerous, Fabish said, and will make “Americans sicker and pay more for energy while doing so.”
EPA will accept public comment for at least 30 days after the rule is published in the Federal Register.