The Sierra Club is taking legal action against the Environmental Protection Agency, saying it has dragged its feet in Texas.
The group said EPA officials have missed legal deadlines for action on limiting Texas pollution’s effects on neighboring states; reducing pollution from particulate matter, or soot; and regulating ozone, or smog.
“The [Obama] administration has failed to carry out its obligations,” said Neil Carman, clean-air director for the Sierra Club’s Texas chapter.
[…]
In spring 2005, the EPA found that Texas had failed to submit complete plans for reducing the transport, or interstate drift, of ozone and particulates.
When two years passed with no approvable Texas plans, the EPA was required to write and implement its own plans, Sierra Club attorney David Baron wrote in the draft letter to the EPA.
Five years later, the EPA has neither approved Texas’ submissions nor written its own substitute plans, Baron wrote.
The EPA missed similar deadlines for action regarding Texas’ particulates plan on Oct. 22, and regarding the state’s ozone plan on April 28, Baron wrote.
They’ll file a lawsuit in 60 days if these issues are not addressed. The Trib has more, including a more detailed look at the “flexible permits” issue.