By Valerie Volcovici and David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, June 26 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday rejected the Environmental Protection Agency's bid to withdraw Biden-era limits on soot pollution from coal-fired power plants and factories, in a setback for the Trump administration's deregulatory efforts.
The EPA under President Donald Trump last year asked the appeals court to invalidate the 2024 rule, arguing the agency had acted unreasonably by failing to consider costs while setting
the standard.
The court rejected the petition, leaving the annual limit of 9 micrograms per cubic meter of fine particulate matter, known as PM 2.5, in place.
"After initially defending the new rule, the EPA now moves to vacate the rule on the grounds that it exceeded its statutory authority and acted unreasonably by failing to consider costs. Because these arguments lack merit, we deny the petitions for review and the motion for vacatur," the ruling said.
The EPA under Biden had said the tighter limits would avoid more than 800,000 cases of asthma symptoms, 2,000 hospital visits and 4,500 premature deaths.
But the Trump EPA has said that the 2024 rule costs "hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars to American citizens if allowed to be implemented" and was not based on a full review of available science. It said on Friday it was reviewing the decision.
Environmental groups had called the Trump attempt to roll back the rule a blatant retreat from important public-health protections.
The Natural Resources Defense Council praised the court decision.
"While the Trump EPA dragged its heels, millions of Americans kept breathing unhealthy levels of soot — pollution the science shows has no safe level," the environmental group said. "This decision removes any remaining doubt: the science has long been clear, and now the law is too."
(Reporting by David Shepardson and Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
