EPA Prompts Activist Concern Over PM Rule On Highway 'Hot Spots'

Environmentalists are raising concerns over a new EPA rule that changes methods for states to address localized concentrations of particulate matter (PM) on busy highways, known as "hot spots." Activists say EPA's newly issued final rule includes an artificially high threshold for how significant highway projects must be before triggering a review of their pollution impacts. EPA published in the March 10 Federal Register a rule for determining in what cases states need to analyze the air quality impacts of...