Maine Attorney General Janet Mills is joining a lawsuit with more than a dozen other states against the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Administrator Scott Pruitt for delaying the designation of areas affected by harmful levels of ozone.
The designations were required by October of this year under stricter Clean Air Act standards implemented in 2015. Pruitt has postponed the designations for one year, but Mills says there is no time to waste.
“We have 360-660 premature deaths every year from these kinds of lung diseases that are affected by ozone,” she says. “We’re at the end of the tailpipe when it comes to smog and airborne pollutants such as this. That’s why we’re very much affected and that’s why we need to be a part of the remedy that the EPA is supposed to be implementing.”
It’s an issue that’s also come up in the U.S. House. Both U.S. Reps. Bruce Poliquin and Chellie Pingree of Maine recently voted against a bill that delays stricter ozone standards.
According to the American Lung Association, more than 87,000 Mainers have COPD, which causes difficulty breathing. Nearly 150,000 children and adults in Maine have asthma.
This story was originally published Aug. 1, 2017 at 4:01 p.m. ET.
