Kentucky governor calls on Biden administration to implement single soot pollution standard

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) is calling on President Biden to reconsider the administration’s proposed soot pollution standards.

In response to a request for comment from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Beshear took issue with the proposal’s use of a range of standards rather than a single standard.

The proposed rule would set the pollution standard between 8.0  and 11.0 micrograms per cubic meter. This approach, Beshear wrote in a letter last month, “makes it extremely difficult to evaluate the Commonwealth’s ability to implement a new standard and assess potential negative socioeconomic consequences resulting from any change.”

The governor also criticized the plan’s lack of a “glide path” or window for compliance, which he said could create major implementation hurdles. Clean Air Act standards, he said, have historically involved a gradual phasedown of the type Beshear’s letter requested.

The current annual national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for particulate matter is 12 micrograms per cubic meter, while the 24-hour NAAQS is 35 micrograms per cubic meter. State data indicates that Kentucky has seen a gradual decline in statewide particulate matter averages since the turn of the 21^st century, going from about 15 micrograms/cubic meter a year in 1999 to just under 10 a year in 2018. 

“I ask that the EPA consider these concerns, withdraw the current rulemaking, and propose a singular standard for consideration,” Beshear said in his letter. “The proposal of one standard, instead of a broad range of possible standards, will allow regulatory agencies, the public, and industry an opportunity to provide meaningful comment and begin to plan to comply with the proposal.”

Anti-air pollution advocates have called for a federal particulate matter standard of 8 micrograms per cubic meter a year. A 2023 report from the American Lung Association indicated about 36 percent of the population of the U.S. lives in an area the group assigned a failing ground for levels of particulate matter or ozone.

The Hill has reached out to the EPA for comment.