R.I., 13 other states file suit against U.S. EPA

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch announced last week that the state has joined a coalition of 13 other states, New York City and Washington, D.C., in suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “for failing to protect the public health and the environment.”
In a statement, Lynch said that the agency and the Bush Administration are in violation of the Clean Air Act by having set standards that do not effectively regulate the amount of ozone air pollution allowed in the atmosphere.
In the statement, Lynch said that the EPA in March “acted against specific recommendations of its own independent science advisers and adopted two new and substantially weaker standards for regulating ground-level ozone pollution, commonly known as smog.” Lynch also said that White House officials took an active role in making one of the standards far weaker than the scientifically recommended levels. &#8226