Federal regulators say Mexico’s pollution, not Arizona’s, is why Phoenix air fails standards

PHOENIX — Federal regulators ruled Monday that pollution blowing into Arizona from Mexico, not local sources, is the reason Phoenix fails to meet federal air quality standards.

The decision is a major win being praised by Arizona businesses. Without it, companies across the Phoenix metro would have faced expensive new environmental rules and standards.

“This is huge. It’s something we’ve worked on for decades,” president and CEO of Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry Danny Seiden told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on Monday.

The Arizona Chamber said local businesses have cut air pollution by 70 percent since 1990, even as the economy boomed. However, smog drifting across the border kept pushing Phoenix’s air quality numbers above federal limits.

“Independent modeling shows that roughly 80%of the ozone impacting the Phoenix area originates outside our region, from international sources and wildfires that no local regulation can touch,” Seiden said. “(Monday’s) ruling is a long-overdue acknowledgment that Arizona cannot be held responsible for pollution blowing across our borders.”

Seiden praised Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin for taking up the state’s case and predicted other states will seek similar relief.

“You’re going to see other states jumping in line to get what we just got,” he said. “It’s a huge deal.”

Seiden also linked the ruling to a potential path to lower gas prices.

“This is step one,” he said. “ADEQ and the Maricopa Association of Governments can start working toward … that blend issue and a new state implementation plan.”

Mayes sues EPA over separate environmental rules

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes last week joined a multistate lawsuit challenging Zeldin’s decision to rescind a 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health, the legal basis for federal vehicle emissions rules.

Zeldin called it “the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.”

Mayes called it unlawful, noting Arizona was under an extreme heat warning the day she filed suit.

The lawsuit puts Zeldin in an unusual position: praised by Arizona business groups for Monday’s air quality ruling while being sued by the state over climate policy.

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