EPA to abandon air pollution rule that would prevent thousands of U.S. deaths

The Environmental Protection Agency will no longer defend Biden-era limits on fine-particle pollution, which causes heart and lung disease.
The Environmental Protection Agency is abandoning a rule that would strengthen limits on fine-particle pollution, a move scientists and experts say could lead to dirtier air and more U.S. deaths.

On Monday night, the agency moved to vacate defense of the rule, which the Biden administration finalized last year, arguing that the previous administration did not have the authority to tighten it. That regulation imposed stricter standards on fine particulate matter measuring less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, including soot, which ranks as the nation’s deadliest air pollutant.

Cover photo: Smoke and steam billow from cooling towers and smokestacks at the now-closed Bruce Mansfield Power Plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. (Joby Warrick/The Washington Post)