WASHINGTON, D. C. – Attorney General Karl A. Racine, along with attorneys general from 14 states, has secured a federal court ruling that will require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to designate areas of the country that have unhealthy levels of smog in excess of federal Clean Air Act requirements.

Once the EPA designates an area as not meeting the requirements, the area must take immediate steps to improve its air quality and develop a plan to come into compliance. The EPA was required to make these designations by October 1, 2017. Because it missed the October 1, 2017 deadline without any justification, the coalition of states (led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra) filed a lawsuit against the EPA. The decision, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, is available here.

Promulgated by the Obama Administration in 2015, the smog standards are set at a level EPA determines is necessary to protect public health from the harmful effects of ground-level ozone, the primary component of smog. When the standards were adopted, EPA projected that compliance with the standards would create billions of dollars’ worth of health benefits every year, even after subtracting costs.

In addition to the District and California, the lawsuit was joined by the attorneys general of New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota (by and through its Minnesota Pollution Control Agency), Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.