Supreme Court Upholds New EPA Air Quality Standards
January 22, 2013
The Supreme Court of the United States confirmed today that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to set air quality standards. The court’s decided, without comment, not to hear an appeal by the Asarco Corporation of a July 2012 decision by the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld the EPA’s new national ambient air quality standard for sulfur dioxide. Asarco, a unit of Grupo Mexico SAB, operates one of the three main copper smelters in the United States. By refusing to hear the appeal, the court upheld the lower court’s decision that the EPA has the authority under the Clean Air Act to adopt standards that are necessary to protect public health.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to set air quality standards. (© Joe Sohm, Photo Researchers)
Exposure to sulfur dioxide, which typically is produced by the burning of fossil fuel at electric power generating plants and other industrial facilities, has been linked to respiratory illnesses. The 2010 EPA rule limits sulfur dioxide in the air to 75 parts per billion over a one-hour period. Asarco claims that it will cost as much $1.5 billion to bring its Hayden, Arizona, smelter into compliance with the 2010 rule.
Additional World Book articles:
- Air pollution
- Environmental pollution
- Environmental pollution 2010 (a Back in Time article)
