Seven AGs Filed Amicus Brief Defending EPA’s Efforts to Regulate Cross-State Air Pollution

JUNE 16, 2023

On June 16, 2023, New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of seven attorneys general in filing an amicus brief defending the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to disapprove proposed changes to Kentucky’s state implementation plan for ozone. Air pollution such as ozone can travel between states, causing pollution produced in one state to affect the air quality in another, which “unfairly shifts costs and health burdens from upwind States like Kentucky onto downwind States like amici and their residents,” as the AGs explained in their brief. The Good Neighbor Provision of the Clean Air Act requires upwind states to submit plans to EPA explaining how they will prohibit emissions that would prevent downwind states from meeting air quality standards. After EPA decided that Kentucky’s plan did not adequately do this, Kentucky filed a lawsuit seeking to stay EPA’s decision. The New York-led coalition opposed this requested stay, arguing in their brief that “emissions of smog-forming pollutants from upwind sources in Kentucky contribute to air quality problems and associated health impacts in amici States and localities.”

On May 8, 2024, staff from the New York AG’s Office argued before the Sixth Circuit defending EPA’s decision.

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