Affecting El Paso County
Texas Border Business
Austin, Texas – Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a motion for leave to intervene in support of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a lawsuit challenging a final EPA action that designated El Paso County “Attainment/Unclassifiable” for purposes of the 2015 national ambient air quality standards for ground-level ozone. EPA’s designation of El Paso County is consistent with Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s previous designation of El Paso County an attainment area for the standard.
In the motion for leave to intervene in Clean Wisconsin v. EPA and consolidated cases, Attorney General Paxton told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has an interest in avoiding alteration of a designation when it would be both contrary to TCEQ’s recommendation and result in more onerous regulatory burdens.
Texas has clearly demonstrated that it can clean its air without harming the energy sector. Nitrogen oxides and ozone levels have both decreased over the past 18 years and Texans are breathing increasingly cleaner air.
View a copy of the motion to intervene here: https://bit.ly/2MHywk4
