Trump EPA Announces Path Forward on National Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter (PM2.5) to Aid Manufacturing, Small Businesses
EPA to release guidance on air quality standards implementation flexibility, permitting direction
WASHINGTON – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency is revisiting the Biden PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), which has raised serious concerns from states across the country and served as a major obstacle to permitting.
“All Americans deserve to breathe clean air while pursuing the American dream. Under President Trump, we will ensure air quality standards for particulate matter are protective of human health and the environment while we unleash the Golden Age of American prosperity,” said EPA Administrator Zeldin.
EPA is also announcing that it will soon release guidance to increase flexibility on NAAQS implementation, reforms to New Source Review, and direction on permitting obligations. This suite of actions advances cooperative federalism and begins to undo red tape holding back American exceptionalism.
The U.S. has some of the lowest fine particulate matter levels in the world. Between 2000 and 2023, average PM2.5 concentrations in the U.S. fell by 37 percent and average PM10 concentrations similarly fell by 36 percent.
This was announced in conjunction with a number of historic actions to advance President Trump’s Day One executive orders and Power the Great American Comeback. Combined, these announcements represent the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in the history of the United States. While accomplishing EPA’s core mission of protecting the environment, the agency is committed to fulfilling President Trump’s promise to unleash American energy, lower costs for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, restore the rule of law, and give power back to states to make their own decisions.