SACRAMENTO — California's attorney general has filed a motion to intervene in a case that challenges the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) rule allowing cement plant operators to have a six-month "compliance holiday" period involving air compliance requirements.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed the motion to intervene in Downwinders at Risk, et al. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which alleges the EPA's compliance holiday rule violates the Clean Air Act.
“This reckless policy by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will leave already vulnerable communities gasping for air,” Becerra said in a statement. “The EPA’s rule paves the way for corporate polluters to recklessly spew poison into the lungs of our most vulnerable communities’ children, risking lifelong ailments and even death.
"We demand that the EPA and the Trump administration perform their duty according to the law and reverse this rule that endangers the lives they are entrusted to protect."
According to the Attorney General's Office, research shows cement kilns cause pollution that can lead to adverse health effects including heart and lung disease. The state is home to at least nine cement plants, many of which are near low-income communities, Becerra's office said.