Final EPA Guidance For States’ PM2.5 Air Planning Might Prompt Lawsuits

EPA’s final guidance on how states can exclude calculations of air pollution precursor impacts from plans and permits for attaining federal fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standards retains several provisions from the proposed version that environmentalists said were too weak, which might prompt critics to file suit over the guide. But the agency’s guidance released May 30 responds to other groups’ concerns, including claims from states and the petroleum industry that the draft version was too conservative. In response EPA appears...