Federal court OKs Trump rollback of air quality regulations

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Charlotte's air quality, which scored a "D" grade in ozone pollution in the American Lung Association's 2025 "State of the Air" report, is likely to get worse after a federal court agreed to a federal rollback of pollution standards.

The air you breathe is about to get dirtier.

A federal court has agreed to a reversal of 2024 soot limits for power plants and factories, opening the door to a federal retreat from public health protections. The Environmental Protection Administration also announced its plan to delay by three years a deadline for coal plants to clean up waste by products. Soot has been linked to asthma and cardiovascular illness.

“We strongly oppose the EPA’s decision to weaken America’s protective health standards for soot — a dangerous pollutant linked to asthma attacks, heart disease, lung cancer, and premature death,” Jeffrey Robbins, executive director at Charlotte-based CleanAIRE NC said in a statement. “Dismantling these crucial safeguards will cost thousands of American lives and dramatically increase healthcare burdens on families nationwide.”

The Charlotte region’s air quality worsened according to the American Lung Association’s 2025 “State of the Air” report, which is based on the area’s worst county’s average number of unhealthy days — 2.7 per year in Mecklenburg County’s case – compared to one day the previous year. The region scored a “D” grade in ozone pollution after earning a “C” a year earlier and remained 79th worst in the U.S., 38 places better than in 2023 when Mecklenburg had 3.7 unhealthy days to earn a failing grade. 

Nationally, the report found that nearly half of people in the U.S. live in counties with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution. 

Mecklenburg earned a failing grade for year-round particle pollution levels above the federal standard after a passing grade in 2024.

Soot – also known as fine particulate matter, or PM2.5 – is the United States’ deadliest air pollutant. The Biden-era rule, based on extensive scientific evidence, would have lowered the legal limit to 9 micrograms per cubic meter, preventing an estimated 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays by 2032. Ozone and particle pollution can cause premature death as well as asthma, heart attacks and strokes, preterm births and impaired cognitive function. Particle pollution can also cause lung cancer.

EPA, which will seek comments on the extension until Jan. 7, 2026, said in a statement that the 2024 rule costs “hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars to American citizens if allowed to be implemented” and was not based on a complete scientific review.

EPA sided with 24 states led by Kentucky and coal industry groups that sued to reverse the 2024 standard. Nearly 91% of U.S. coal plants already meet the higher standard. EPA also proposed an extension to October 2031 the deadline for some large coal plants to end operation of coal-fired boilers and close unlined coal ash pits “to promote electric grid reliability.”

In 2024 during the Biden administration, EPA said the more restrictive annual limit of 9 micrograms per cubic meter would avoid more than 800,000 cases of asthma symptoms, 2,000 hospital visits and 4,500 premature deaths.

The rollback is seen as a concession by President Donald Trump to support the coal industry. 

Children, seniors, pregnant women, people with underlying medical conditions such as asthma, COPD, heart disease and outdoor workers are disproportionately impacted by daily exposure. The rollback has potentially outsized effects on Black and brown communities near busy roadways that where disproportionate amounts of soot and greenhouse gas emissions are generated by gas-powered vehicle exhaust.

“According to the American Lung Association, 63 million Americans experience the short-term effects of soot daily,” Robbins said. “That’s 17% of the national population. And these health burdens are not shared equally. Black, Indigenous, and people of color, in addition to low-income communities, routinely face the highest levels of soot pollution.”

Robbins is calling on state lawmakers and environmental agencies to enact stronger soot standards instead of subscribing to federal standards.

“Simply put, reducing soot pollution will save lives,” he said. “North Carolina now faces a critical choice: accept lower standards that endanger our communities or step up as a leader in public health.” 

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