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<\/a><\/p>\nPublished On 26 Nov 202526 Nov 2025<\/p>\n
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United States President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has moved to roll back tougher limits on deadly soot pollution, prompting condemnation from environmental groups.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration\u2019s latest bid\u00a0to weaken environmental standards comes after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed a court motion arguing that former President Joe Biden\u2019s administration exceeded its authority when it tightened air quality standards in 2024.<\/p>\n
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In a motion filed on Monday, lawyers for Trump\u2019s EPA asked a Washington, DC, appeals court to throw out the tougher standard, arguing it was introduced without the \u201crigorous, stepwise process\u201d required under the 1963 Clean Air Act.<\/p>\n
The EPA initially defended the tougher standard amid a flurry of legal challenges from Republican-led states and business groups, which argued the rule would raise costs, before reversing course under Trump appointee Lee Zeldin.<\/p>\n
\u201cEPA has concluded that the position it advanced earlier is erroneous,\u201d lawyers for the EPA said in the filing, arguing that the agency should complete a \u201cthorough review of the underlying criteria and corresponding standards\u201d before revising the limit.<\/p>\n
Under Biden appointee Michael S Regan, the EPA last year substantially lowered acceptable soot levels, from 12 micrograms per cubic metre of air to 9 micrograms per cubic metre of air.<\/p>\n
The agency said at the time that the tougher standard would prevent up to 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays by 2032.<\/p>\n
Upon taking office earlier this year, Zeldin, a former Republican lawmaker, pledged to roll back dozens of environmental regulations as part of what he dubbed the \u201clargest deregulatory action in the history of the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n
Patrice Simms, an environmental lawyer at the nonprofit organisation Earthjustice, said lowering air quality standards would harm public health.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump has made it clear that his agenda is all about saving corporations money, and this administration\u2019s EPA has nothing to do with protecting people\u2019s health, saving lives, or serving children, families or communities,\u201d Simms said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will continue to defend this life-saving standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patrick Drupp, the director of climate policy at the Sierra Club, also condemned the EPA\u2019s move, calling it \u201creckless\u201d and \u201ca complete betrayal\u201d of the agency\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile this administration continues to strip away access to affordable healthcare, they are simultaneously allowing fossil fuel companies to cut corners and make Americans sicker,\u201d Drupp said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Environmental Protection Agency says strict air quality standards were introduced without sufficient review. Published On 26 Nov…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[56613,65,273,111,43,139,69,147,1430,1431],"class_list":{"0":"post-154522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-climate-crisis","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-us-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}