State AG Database – Air Pollution

The following is a list of major actions undertaken by state attorneys general to protect air quality and ensure that air pollution laws are fully implemented and enforced:

• Lawsuits v. Federal Government

• Lawsuits v. Private Actors

• Defense of Federal Standards

• Legislative Inputs

Lawsuits v. Federal Government

New York v. McCarthy (N.Y.S.D. 2017): Multi-state lawsuit challenging EPA failure to act on petition requesting that the agency regulate ozone pollution from sources in upwind states.

New York v. Jackson (D.D.C. 2012): Multi-state lawsuit to force EPA to comply with Clean Air Act requirement to update and revise National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) every five years.

American Farm Bureau Federation v. EPA (D.C. Cir. 2009): Multi-state lawsuit challenging the adequacy of EPA’s 2006 revision to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) regulating soot pollution under the Clean Air Act.

New Jersey v. EPA (D.C. Cir. 2008): Multi-state challenge to EPA decision to remove fossil fuel-fired power plants from list of sources regulated under CAA section 112 (hazardous air pollutants) and to establish new performance standards for mercury emissions from these plants under CAA section 111.

New York v. EPA (D.C. Cir. 2006): Multi-state challenge to 2002 EPA rule amending and expanding the routine maintenance, repair and replacement exceptions to the New Source Review program.

New York v. EPA (D.C. Cir. 2005): Multi-state challenge to 2002 EPA rule amending the New Source Review (NSR) program and narrowing the definition of “modification” to exclude certain sources from NSR requirements.

Lawsuits v. Private Actors

Multi-state Settlement with Volkswagen for Emissions Defeat Devices (2016): Settlement of consumer protection claims raised by a multi-state coalition of state attorneys general against Volkswagen for selling vehicles equipped with “defeat device” software intended to circumvent emissions standards and concealing this software from regulators and the public.

Settlement, California v. Volkswagen (2016): California AG, working with the federal EPA, entered into two related settlements over Volkswagen’s use of defeat devices to evade emissions testing.

Settlement, Connecticut v. Hyundai Motor Co. (Conn. Super. Ct. 2016): Multi-state settlement of consumer-protection claims against car manufacturers that overstated their vehicles’ fuel efficiency.

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality v. Michigan Waste Energy, Inc. and Detroit Renewable Power, LLC (Mich. Cir. 2014): Michigan AG brought enforcement action against waste management companies to reduce foul odor emanating from the United States’ largest waste incineration facility.

New York v. American Electric Power Service Corp., 2007 WL 539536 (S.D. Ohio 2007): Multi-state litigation under Clean Air Act alleging violations of New Source Review permitting process to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions in coal-fired power plants.

Defense of Federal Standards

Michigan v. EPA (2015): Multiple states intervened in lawsuit to defend EPA standards regulating mercury and other air pollutants from the power sector.

EPA v. EME Homer City Generation (2014): Multiple states intervened in lawsuit to support EPA rule on cross-state air pollution against state and industry challenge.

Legislative Inputs

Coal and Coke Regulations, House Bill 5939 (2014): Illinois AG co-authored legislative proposal to regulate bulk materials storage facilities that handle petroleum coke and other refinery production materials in response to air pollution violations linked to several facilities on Chicago’s southeast side.