The Obama administration, already contending with a lawsuit from health and environmental groups arguing that ozone pollution standards are inadequate, now faces another suit over soot.
Eleven states, including New York and California, joined forces on Friday to sue the federal Environmental Protection Agency in Federal District Court in Manhattan over the agency’s delays in tightening air quality standards involving fine particulate matter, or soot, from diesel trucks, buses, power plants and other sources.
In New York City and other urban areas, health officials blame the pollution for increasing the risk of early death, heart attacks and emergency room visits from people with asthma and other illnesses.
Yet the Obama administration faces intense opposition to stricter air quality regulations from Republicans and industry critics who argue that they would drive up energy costs and hurt economic growth. When the E.P.A.
postponed revising the soot standards last fall as part of a scheduled review under the federal Clean Air Act, the states decided to sue. The E.P.A. last revised the standards in 2006.
New rules are “vitally important to public health,” the suit says.
The states joining the legal action are New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
“Clean air is a public right, and standards that protect it are a necessity,” Eric T. Schneiderman, New York State’s attorney general, said in a statement. “Every day, air pollution from soot risks the health of more than one-third of Americans, including our most vulnerable –- children, the elderly and the sick. These risks are simply unacceptable.”
In a statement, the E.P.A. said it was “continuing to work” on proposing new standards.