EPA Ordered to Explain Plans for Pared Down Ozone Standards

The Environmental Protection Agency will need to tell the D.C. Circuit how traveling ozone plans can move forward with a limited number of states, according to an order issued Thursday.

Judges at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit tasked the agency to “further respond to comments in the record” regarding whether the rule can still be adequately implemented when several states managed to obtain stays.

The two-part rule relies on replacing rejected state air plans with a more stringent federal alternative. Litigation over both prongs of the program is pending in a patchwork of courts, ...