A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) effort to lift Biden-era limits on fine particulate matter, or soot, from coal-fired power plants and factories, representing a setback to the Trump administration’s actions to loosen environmental regulations on the coal industry.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the EPA’s petition and motion for vacatur, leaving the annual limit of 9 micrograms per cubic meter of PM 2.5 in place.
“After initially defending the new rule, the EPA now moves to vacate the rule on the grounds that it exceeded its statutory authority and acted unreasonably by failing to consider costs. Because these arguments lack merit, we deny the petitions for review and the motion for vacatur,” the ruling said….