Press Releases
04/08/2022
Attorney General Tong: EPA Must Rethink Standards Regulating Particulate Matter Pollution from Airplanes
(Hartford, CT) -- Attorney General William Tong this week joined a multistate coalition urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to adopt more protective standards for particulate matter emissions from airplanes. As currently written, the EPA’s proposed rule would set emissions standards for particulate matter for commercial aircraft that are legally inadequate and fail to mitigate the harms of this pollution by any amount. Stronger standards are essential to make progress on the Biden Administration's stated commitment to address disproportionate environmental burdens in low-income communities and communities of color.“The EPA has acknowledged the serious public health and environmental threat posed by airplane emissions of particulate matter, yet has failed to take any meaningful action to regulate this dangerous pollution. Cleaner, safer aircraft engines are already available and in use. There is a real opportunity here to have cleaner air through feasible technology solutions – EPA must take it,” said Attorney General Tong.
Particulate matter pollution causes up to 45,000 deaths per year nationwide and disproportionately impacts Connecticut’s most vulnerable populations. Particulate matter is linked to increased mortality from COVID-19 and other serious public health problems including cardiovascular disease, respiratory impacts, and cancer.
The worst health effects occur from particulate matter emitted from airplanes during takeoff and landing, most impacting communities that live, work, and go to school near airports. These communities are disproportionately low-income communities and communities of color.
While the proposed rule acknowledges significant evidence that these communities are inequitably impacted by particulate matter pollution from airplanes, the EPA understates the environmental justice impacts of this pollution due to inadequate monitoring data and underestimations of particulate matter’s health effects. The proposed rule also fails to reduce particulate matter pollution at all, even though there are jet engines currently in use that reduce particulate matter emissions by orders of magnitude far surpassing those required by the proposed standards.
In today’s letter, the coalition highlights the deficiencies of the EPA’s proposed rule, arguing that:
• The EPA fails to meaningfully analyze the impact of particulate matter emissions from airplanes on environmental justice communities;
• The EPA’s failure to consider feasible reductions in particulate matter emissions is unlawful and arbitrary; and
• The EPA must evaluate and adopt emission standards based on the full range of technologically feasible control technologies and result in reductions that reflect the severe health and environmental impacts from particulate matter pollution.
Attorney General Tong is also part of multistate litigation challenging the EPA’s similarly ineffective standards regulating greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes.
Attorney General Tong joins the attorneys general of California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin in filing the comments.
A copy of the letter can be found here.
Assistant Attorney General William E. Dornbos and Chief of the Environment Section Matthew Levine assisted the Attorney General with this matter.
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