Petersen And Toma Sue Biden Administration’s EPA Over New Air Quality Rule

Arizona State Senate President Warren Petersen and Speaker of the House Ben Toma are teaming up to take on the Biden Administration’s EPA over its new air quality rule.

The two lawmakers say that “while families across the nation are feeling the devastating impacts of inflation and an open border crisis, the Biden Administration is choosing to ignore these realties and is instead focusing on implementing a radical environmental agenda that promises to wreak havoc on Arizona’s economy and citizens.”

In response, Sen. Petersen and Rep. Toma are joining the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry in a lawsuit, filed on Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, to stop what they say is a “dangerous” air quality rule from being enacted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The EPA rule, titled “Reconsideration of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter,” creates “unattainable environmental goals for Maricopa, Pinal, and Santa Cruz counties, as it imposes incredibly stringent regulations of fine particles within the air, also known as PM 2.5. Sources of PM 2.5 include smoke, vehicle exhaust, emissions from industrial facilities and energy sources, such as power plants. Only 16% of all coarse and fine particles combined come from power generation or other industrial activities. The largest source is wildfires, which account for 43% of all particulate matter in the air,” according to the two lawmakers.

Petersen and Toma argue that the United States currently has some of the “strictest air quality standards in the world, even more than the European Union, and were first adopted by the Obama Administration then retained by the Trump Administration. This new rule would be much more severe and guarantees Arizona consumers and businesses will pay the price.”

The lawmakers claim that the “fallout from this radical ideology being forced upon our nation will mean:

• New infrastructure construction that would improve safety and travel times for Arizonans will be halted.

• Permits for new manufacturing facilities, especially in Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties, will be blocked.

• Small businesses will be required to pay for expensive new equipment, with those costs being passed to customers.

• As many as eight additional counties within Arizona could be out of compliance, threatening the state’s economic growth and prosperity.

• Investments in new facilities will be sent to foreign countries with less stringent regulations, which will force jobs overseas and create a greater reliance on adversary nations.

“The Biden administration should be rewarding American businesses for being the most environmentally friendly in the world. Instead, they are doubling down on their left-wing agenda. This rule is bad for Arizona, its citizens and our small businesses,” said Petersen. “The EPA should focus on mitigating wildfires, the primary source of this pollution. This rule will create unnecessary hardships for job creators and hardworking Arizonans. It will detrimentally impact our power grid and create even more red tape for both small and large businesses. We have no choice but to ask the courts to provide relief from this tyrannical, arbitrary, and illegal move by the EPA.”