On March 6, 2024, the NAM joined a coalition of other major business trade associations to file suit in the D.C. Circuit to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s misguided final rule lowering the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) to 9 micrograms per cubic meter. The Clear Air Act requires manufacturers to obtain preconstruction permits for new and modified emissions sources obtainable only after showing that emissions from the proposed new source will not cause or contribute to a PM 2.5 NAAQS violation. The Clean Air Act also requires the EPA to review the NAAQS every five years to determine whether the PM2.5 standard should be retained or revised. In December 2020, following a complete review of the PM NAAQS, the EPA decided to retain the PM2.5 standard of 12 micrograms per cubic meter. But in June 2021, the agency announced it would reconsider that decision. The EPA ultimately issued the revised standard in an out-of-cycle reconsideration becoming the first administration to redo a promulgated NAAQS. The standard stands to impede economic development in much of the country due to many manufacturers’ inability to establish that a proposed new construction or modified emission source will not cause or contribute to a PM 2.5 NAAQS violation. The NAM therefore sued to protect manufacturers’ ability to obtain permits, expand facilities and pursue long-term investment plans, and defend our country’s competitive advantage.
On June 6, 2024, our coalition filed its opening brief arguing that the EPA lacks the authority under the Clean Air Act--the law that authorizes it to establish the NAAQS--to "reconsider" a decision made in 2020 to not lower the PM2.5 standard; that the agency failed to take into account the cost and feasibility of a tightened standard; and that it failed to give a "reasoned explanation for key aspects of its decision."