Rep. Carter moves to weaken air pollution standard

U.S. Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter on Monday introduced legislation to weaken the regulation of harmful air pollution.

Carter is the main sponsor of H.R.2288, which aims to nullify the final rule of the Environmental Protection Agency titled “Reconsideration of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter.” The text of Carter’s bill was not immediately available.

That EPA rule, finalized in February 2024, strengthened nationwide air quality standards by reducing the allowable limit for tiny particles in the air known as PM 2.5. The number refers to the particle size of 2.5 micrometers or smaller, which is small enough to be absorbed in the bloodstream when inhaled. For comparison, a human hair is 70 micrometers in diameter. 

The previous allowable limit of PM 2.5 was 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air. The rule reduced that to 9 micrograms per cubic meter. 

Man-made sources of particulate matter include power plants, industries and automobile exhaust. Studies link particle pollution exposure to a variety of health problems, including premature death in people with heart or lung disease, nonfatal heart attacks and aggravated asthma.

The 2024 rule was accounted for vulnerable populations living near sources of pollution, like busy roads or power plants, when designing air monitoring networks.

The ‘hit list’

Carter’s bill targets one of 31 federal climate and health protections EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced on March 12 he was planning to eliminate. 

Zeldin’s “hit list” as environmental advocates call it, listed “Reconsideration of Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards that shut down opportunities for American manufacturing and small businesses (PM 2.5 NAAQS)” under the heading “Lowering the cost of living for American families.” 

Yet the EPA in 2024 touted the strengthened standards, indicating the public health benefits from avoiding death and illness could be as high as $46 billion in 2032. 

Carter did not mention the legislation during his telephone town hall on Monday. His office did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment on the bill. The Republican congressman lives on St. Simons and represents Georgia’s First District, which includes all six coastal counties. 

The Congressional District Health Dashboard scores Carter’s district as average for PM 2.5 pollution with an estimated 6 micrograms per cubic meter in the air over a month. About 9.4% of Georgians have asthma, which is worsened by PM 2.5 pollution. 

‘Comprehensively devastating pollutant’

Joseph Goffman, assistant administrator in the Office of Air and Radiation at the EPA in the Biden Administration, said fine particles are the most important pollutant to target to improve public health.

“PM is the most comprehensively devastating pollutant that affects public health,” Goffman said during an online press briefing organized by the Climate Action Campaign on Thursday. “These particles really are invasive and intrusive, and they deliver to the body toxins and other chemicals and substances that really affect people’s health.”

He explained that the EPA distilled hundreds of peer-reviewed studies to understand how reducing fine particle pollution would improve health.  

“PM affects asthmatics. It affects people with heart conditions. It affects people who are susceptible to cancer. It affects people who are old. It affects people who are young,” Goffman said. “And since all of us go through life facing a number of public health hazards or personal health hazards, a key to really enhancing the quality of our lives and prolonging them is to reduce PM.” 

When the particulate matter reductions were announced last year, the American Lung Association hailed the regulation as progress but called for even tighter restrictions to save lives. “EPA’s analysis of the proposal showed that setting an annual standard of 8 µm/m3 would save significantly more lives, especially in Black communities, than the standard of 9 µm/m3,” Harold Wimmer, President and CEO of the American Lung Association, wrote in a prepared statement.

When Zeldin’s “hit list” of rollbacks was announced, Wimmer denounced them as a “direct contradiction of EPA’s mission to protect the environment and human health.”