The Supreme Court stopped the EPA plan to keep smog from drifting across state lines
State-level enforcement of the EPA’s Good Neighbor Rule and its public comment on states’ environmental compliance with the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards
The Supreme Court decided to press pause on the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to prevent smog-forming pollutants from drifting across state borders.
The EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan aimed to ensure compliance with the 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards law. To carry out the law’s mandate, the EPA required “upwind” states to reduce air pollution affecting “downwind” states. Under the Good Neighbor rule, states are first given the chance to create a plan that complies with agency’s ozone guidelines. The EPA designs a compliance plan for the state if they don’t submit an adequate plan. In February 2023, the EPA determined that 23 states had not provided sufficient plans and the agency then decided to implement its own emissions-control program for those states.
Several states, including Ohio, and large industrial companies challenged the EPA plan. They contended that the agency’s “dictatorial approach” failed to adequately consider the legal and practical implications of substituting its own plan for the state plans. The plan would cause economic and operational harm by forcing states to make expensive alterations to their power plants while court review is pending, as was argued by the opponents.
US Supreme Court has ordered a stay on environmental enforcement of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Good Neighbor plan to prevent smog pollution from drifting across state borders. The EPA had earlier decided to implement its own emissions-control program for 23 states that had failed to submit sufficient plans. Several states including Ohio and large industrial companies had challenged the plan.