Environmentalists sue feds over California, Colorado smog pollution

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — Two environmental nonprofits sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator on Thursday, claiming California and Colorado residents were underserved by the agency in its capacity to set standards to curb air pollution, including smog, with violations to the Clean Air Act.

To set national air quality standards, each state or air regulator in the U.S. submits a State Implementation Plan with a timeline to tackle pollution. With the EPA’s approval within two years of submission of such a state plan, a Federal Implementation Plan is enacted.

But the Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Environmental Health claim in their complaint the EPA and administrator Lee Zeldin aren’t addressing the plans in a timely manner.

“Numerous SIP elements, submitted by both the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District (California) and the State of Colorado for the West Mojave Desert and Denver Metro/North Front Range nonattainment areas, respectively, have now languished before EPA, without receiving final approval or disapproval, for years,” the plaintiffs say in the complaint. “Additionally, EPA has failed to promulgate a FIP for Colorado, after partially disapproving its SIP two years ago.”

The plaintiffs say that the agency has sat on plans submitted by California in 2020 and 2023 and failed to take action by May 2025, as the act requires.

With regard to Colorado, the “EPA disapproved the SIP revisions ­— submitted by Colorado on May 14, 2018, May 13, 2020, March 22, 2021, May 18, 2021, and May 20, 2022 — citing their lack of ‘sufficient reporting requirements,’ which illegally undermine the ability of the public to enforce the rules being incorporated into Colorado’s SIP,” causing further delay and prompted the organizations to file suit.

The environmental nonprofits, through the lawsuit, hope to push the EPA to act as soon as possible to implement the new plans and enforce standards for the two regions.

The plaintiffs note in the complaint that ozone pollution, often called smog, damages crops and vegetation, including ecosystems, by stymieing clean air, water, and carbon sequestration.  Additionally, smog pollution can cause respiratory problems, with children particularly at risk.

The West Mojave Desert region, which includes Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave National Preserve, and the city of Denver currently do not meet the national standards for air quality and are home to over four million people. The plaintiffs claim around half the smog emissions in Denver area are caused by oil and gas production.

“Trump’s EPA is forcing millions of people to breathe extremely harmful levels of smog, day after day,” Ryan Maher, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “As this administration gives handout after handout to the fossil fuel industry and other polluters, we’re counting on the courts to step in and protect public health.”

The EPA declined to comment on pending litigation.