{"id":1290464,"date":"2024-01-17T15:33:43","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T21:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1290464"},"modified":"2024-01-19T05:58:30","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T11:58:30","slug":"court-upholds-epa-2-counties-dont-meet-air-quality-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1290464","title":{"rendered":"Court upholds EPA air quality standards"},"content":{"rendered":"

TATUM \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \"\"Our news partners at KETK report that the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided last week to uphold the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s designation that Panola and Rusk counties do not meet national air quality standards for harmful dioxide due to a local coal plant. According to the Sierra Club, the EPA made its original nonattainment designation for the two counties in the 2010 sulfur dioxide National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Locals also raised health concerns in 2019 over possible exposure from the Martin Lake coal plant pollution.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Fifth Circuit decision is welcome news because it cements EPA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obligation to impose permanent and enforceable emission reductions at the Martin Lake coal plant \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the biggest sulfur dioxide polluter in the entire U.S.,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Josh Smith, a Sierra Club attorney who helped lead the case, said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This will help ensure that the communities surrounding the coal plant can soon enjoy lower levels of pollution and come into attainment with national air quality standards.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The Sierra Club announced in July the EPA had agreed to settle a lawsuit with them in a separate case over the pollution. As part of the proposed settlement, the EPA must either approve a Texas plan to reduce sulfur dioxide pollution or reject it and issue a federal plan as required by the Clean Air Act no later than Dec. 31, 2024.<\/p>\n

According to the EPA, short-term exposure to sulfur dioxide can harm the human respiratory system and make breathing difficult.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The people of East Texas want and deserve clean air,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Misti O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Quinn, a Sierra Club field organizer in Dallas and East Texas, said in a release. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are all celebrating this decision because it will finally require Luminant, which has the money to install and use this pollution-reducing technology, to actually do so. It will level the playing field \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been working so hard to achieve.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The Sierra Club said in a release the court of appeals opinion was necessary to affirm the settlement, which they expect to be given final approval in the coming months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TATUM \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Our news partners at KETK report that the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided last week to uphold the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s designation that Panola and Rusk counties do not meet national air quality standards for harmful dioxide due to a local coal plant. According to the Sierra Club, the EPA … Continue reading Court upholds EPA air quality standards<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":1290474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2024\/01\/MartinLake_pic-175x79.webp","fifu_image_alt":"Court upholds EPA: 2 counties don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t meet air quality standards","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1290464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 06:17:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2024\/01\/MartinLake_pic-175x79.webp","fifu_image_alt":"Court upholds EPA: 2 counties don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t meet air quality standards","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1290464"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1290961,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290464\/revisions\/1290961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1290474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1290464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1290464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1290464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}