FRANKFORT, Ky. (WMDJ) — Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a challenge to a federal air quality rule adopted in 2024.
Coleman and West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey are leading a 25-state coalition challenging the EPA rule, which lowered the annual standard for fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, from 12 to 9 micrograms per cubic meter.
The states argue the stricter standard could make it more difficult and expensive to permit new manufacturing, energy and infrastructure projects.
The EPA has said the tighter standard is intended to reduce health problems associated with fine-particle pollution and estimated when adopting the rule that it could prevent thousands of premature deaths annually.
Kentucky and other states previously challenged the rule in federal appeals court, but the D.C. Circuit upheld it June 26. The states are now asking the Supreme Court to review that decision.
