EPA threatens to cut California's highway funding over Clean Air Act 'failure' [View all]
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is reportedly threatening to pull federal funding for highways and other transportation projects in California after the state has “failed” to submit complete pollution-control plans required by law.
According to a letter obtained by the Sacramento Bee, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler wrote to the California Air Resources Board that the state “has failed to carry out its most basic tasks under the Clean Air Act” since the 1970s. Wheeler specifically cites a backlog of reports that should detail state efforts to cut pollutant emissions under federal law.
Wheeler warned that if California fails to withdraw its “backlogged and unapprovable” reports and work with the EPA to develop complete ones, the administration could hand down sanctions that would mean cuts to highway funding and allow the federal government to develop its own plans.
In Tuesday’s letter, Wheeler writes that California “has the worst air quality in the United States,” alleging that 34 million people in California live in areas that don’t meet federal air pollution standards — “more than twice as many people as any other state in the country.”
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-09-24/trump-administration-epa-california-highway-funding-clean-air-act-failure
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