EPA Explains Functionality of Pared-Down Traveling Ozone Rule

The Environmental Protection Agency insists that it would not have adjusted its traveling ozone standards even with fewer states involved, according to a court-ordered explanation.

The supplemental response to ongoing “Good Neighbor” challenges are set to be published on Tuesday in the Federal Register and were ordered in September by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Challengers to the two-part rule—which rejects 21 state air plans that govern cross-border ozone pollution and replaces them with a federal alternative—claim that the agency never considered the rule’s effectiveness with a smaller number of states ...