New York Lawsuits Are About Smog, Not CO2

Your editorial “Biden’s ‘Backdoor’ Climate Plan” (March 18) weaves an elaborate scheme for why my office purportedly is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to tighten national air-quality standards for smog. There is only one simple motivation for my action: I care about New Yorkers’ right to clean, healthy air.

Smog is a dangerous pollutant that triggers asthma attacks and can cause premature death. Children, the elderly and those with lung ailments are at especially high risk. Millions of New Yorkers have been breathing unhealthy air for decades.

My office has brought litigation to ensure that the EPA does its job to set health-protective standards based on the best, latest science, and require sources in upwind states to limit emissions that contribute to the dangerous smog levels in New York. Several of our lawsuits over the past four years have addressed these concerns, one of which is the subject of your editorial claiming that the “aim” of that legal action “is to hasten a replacement ozone rule that regulates CO2.” That’s simply not true.

Our coalition sued President Trump’s EPA because it failed its legal responsibility to establish national standards that protect American’s ability to breathe clean, healthy air. Its decision ignored evidence proving that the current standards are too weak to protect against asthma and other respiratory illnesses, harms that are suffered disproportionately by minority and low-income communities.

In this instance, the simplest explanation is the right one. I am fighting to strengthen the national air-quality standards for smog because all New Yorkers have a right to breathe clean, healthy air.