Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul led a coalition of 17 attorneys general in opposing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to allow construction to begin at major sources of air pollution without first obtaining a New Source Review (NSR) permit. An NSR permit is a pre-construction air pollution permit that ensures industrial facilities, factories and power plants install modern pollution controls when they are newly built or undergo major modifications.

The EPA’s proposal would abandon a nearly 50-year-old approach to interpreting the Clean Air Act simply to satisfy new deregulatory policies and would constrain state permitting agencies, limit public participation, and ultimately harm the environment and public health.

“The EPA is proposing to throw out nearly 50 years of policy that has given communities a voice to protect themselves from the degradation of their environment,” Raoul said. “I will continue to oppose the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back important environmental regulations that protect public health and our environment.”

In their comment letter to the EPA, Raoul and the coalition explain that the Clean Air Act requires NSR permits to be obtained before construction of any portion of a major pollutant-emitting facility or source is started. Under the current process, residents are able to provide input and pose questions before construction begins about facilities near where they live and that may pollute the air that they breathe. This process is especially important for facilities to be constructed in lower-income communities and communities of color, which often already bear high pollution burdens. The proposal will deprive these communities of a fair opportunity to be heard before it may be too late to address their environmental concerns.

Raoul and the coalition argue that the EPA cannot adopt its proposed regulatory language because it is contrary to law, as well as being arbitrary and capricious.

The comment letter is the latest action in Raoul’s ongoing work to protect the environment, advance clean energy solutions, and sound the alarm about the Trump administration’s unprecedented attempts to illegally dismantle programs and rescind regulations that protect clean air, clean water, clean energy, the climate, and public health and safety. Read more about those efforts here.

Joining Raoul in submitting the comment letter to the EPA are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, the cities of Chicago and New York and the California Air Resources Board.