On March 6, 2024, manufacturers and half of the U.S. states sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because of a decision the Biden administration made to set higher standards for soot pollution. This project is expected to avoid 4,500 premature deaths, 290,000 lost work days, 800,000 asthma attacks, and improve people’s health. This rule will have $46 billion in net health benefits, and it will improve the well-being of children, older adults, people with heart and lung conditions, people who have low income, and minority communities. Environmental groups applaud the limit, saying it will improve the lives of Americans and the future generation.
The lawsuit is being led by Republican Kentucky Attorney General Russel Coleman and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey; they have said that this affects the public, manufacturers, and utilities by raising costs and getting rid of jobs. They also say that the U.S. already has tougher air quality standards than other countries. States participating in the lawsuit are Kentucky, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, West Virginia, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming, and Texas.
This limit lowered the limit of annual fine particulate matter from 12 to 9 micrograms; the EPA is going to sample the air to see which countries and states that go over the limit, and if they do go over they will have 18 months to make plans to fix it, otherwise they will have penalties. The EPA says that by 2032, 99% of U.S. countries will be able to stay within the limit. There have been petitions to stop this, and most people are worried about the economy and retirement savings.
With the elections coming up, people think Biden is trying to win back the climate activists after he approved the Willow Project- a poll has found 10% of his voters from 2020 have shifted away from him and gone to Trump, while none of Trump’s voters have switched to Biden. He has made an agreement in Dubai, along with 200 other countries, to transfer away from fossil fuels, which is known as one of the biggest climate laws in U.S. history. Researchers found that if Donald Trump wins the election, there would be an extra 4 billion tons of carbon dioxide, which equals the emissions from the European Union and Japan, and is worth over $900 billion dollars in damages. Trump himself has said that if he wins the presidency, he is going to start drilling almost immediately.
