Ninth Circuit Remains Resolute In Its Support of Cleaner Air In Los Angeles
Posted January 27, 2012 in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, U.S. Law and Policy
About a year ago, I blogged about a significant legal victory for clean air and clean transportation in the Los Angeles region. You can read that blog here. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed its earlier decision today, which is happy news for those of us in the Los Angeles region who want cleaner air. A year ago, the Court ruled that the Los Angeles region needs a real plan to clean up its harmful air pollution. After the decision was released, instead of rolling up their sleeves and fixing the deficiencies in our clean air plan, EPA and other government agencies sought to have the Court change its opinion. They filed what is called a petition for panel rehearing. It essentially asked the three judges on the panel to change their minds.
After careful consideration and a lot of briefing, the Ninth Circuit once again vindicated the rights of residents in the region who want clean air. Notably, the decision accomplishes three important objectives.
- First, it requires the Los Angeles region to revise its clearly inadequate roadmap for cleaning up harmful ozone pollution.
- Second, it requires EPA to make sure measures to clean up harmful pesticide pollution are enforceable.
- Third, it requires the region to get more serious about addressing emissions from transportation (e.g. cars and trucks).
In looking back at my prior blog post, I made the following statement:
Overall, the Court has revived a sense of accountability in clean air planning in the nation’s smog capitol. The decision today seeks to translate a clean air plan from just a stack of papers on the shelf to a requirement to actually meet clean air standards to protect the health.
With the revised opinion today, this statement remains as true as ever. My hope is that instead of continued fighting and dragging of their feet, our agencies finally roll up their sleeves and fix the problematic plan that is supposed to clean the air but simply falls flat.
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Comments
Irvin Dawid — Jan 29 2012 06:48 PM
Kudos to The Association of Irritated Residents, El Comité para el
Bienestar de Earlimart, the Community of Children’s Advocates Against Pesticide Poisoning, and the Natural Resources
Defense Council for pursuing...successfully, the right of Southern Californians to breathe clean, healthy air!
I'm particularly interested to see how this ruling will affect the requirement for the EPA to require stiff Transportation Control Measures for governments and agencies....and I wonder if they can set an example for those breathing bad air in northern cA.