FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 1, 2026
Contact: Ashley Sullivan, 1 (917) 837-1183, ashley.sullivan@weact.org,
WASHINGTON – Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit court denied the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) effort to abandon the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQs) for deadly fine particulate matter (PM2.5), also known as soot pollution. The federal court found the EPA’s argument ‘lacks merit,’ leaving the strengthened 2024 air‑quality standards in place. The Clean Air for the Long Haul cohort worked tirelessly with allies for the final stronger soot standards, filing an amicus brief to defend them against these legal challenges. The Clean Air for the Long Haul cohort celebrates this recent decision, which demonstrates a critical win for the communities we fight for, and a rare moment of justice amid the deregulatory Trump administration agenda that puts polluter profits over human lives, especially people of color and low income.
In response, the Clean Air for the Long Haul Cohort shares:
“The past year of EPA rollbacks has betrayed our needs, ignored established science, and endangered our health in favor of polluting industries, reinforcing environmental racism. This ruling is hope that justice will prevail and that EPA must enforce protections our communities deserve against toxic soot pollution. We have a right to breathe clean air and to live safely without compromise. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is duty-bound to uphold the current soot standard and fulfill its mission to protect human health and the environment. Justice is on our side — and we won’t stop fighting until it wins. We dare to breathe!” – Anastasia Gordon, Director of Federal Policy, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
“This decision reaffirms that clean air is a fundamental right, not a privilege. Study after study show that cleaner air means healthier children, stronger communities, and fewer families living with preventable illness. This legal victory is an important step toward environmental justice, but our work continues until every community can breathe safe, healthy air. EPA must now do its job by fully implementing and enforcing these stronger protections.” – Irene Burga, Climate Justice and Clean Air Program Director, GreenLatinos
“As a Midwest-based environmental justice organization, we at RiSE4EJ see firsthand how toxic air pollution steals the breath and health of our most vulnerable communities. RiSE4EJ has fiercely and consistently pushed the EPA to stop catering to polluters, step up, and fulfill its legal obligation to enforce the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for deadly PM2.5, or soot.”
“We don’t just demand stricter rules. EPA must take into account cumulative impacts of environmental health hazards on communities and identify steps to address them. The EPA needs to strategically place regulatory federal reference monitors beyond criteria pollutants, informed in direct consultation with environmental justice organizations such as RiSE4EJ.” – Beto Lugo Martinez, Executive Director of RiSE4EJ and former member of the Federal Clean Air Act Advisory Committee.
Beto and RiSE4EJ are on the ground demanding that frontline communities are never sacrificed for corporate profit. Growing up fenceline to a petrochemical facility in California continues to drive his advocacy today.
Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately exposed to soot from major sources of pollution such as highways and power plants, leading to higher rates of asthma, lung disease, heart attacks, pre-term births, and premature deaths. African Americans are nearly three times more likely to be hospitalized or die from asthma than their white counterparts while about 19 million low-income and 80 million people of color live in places with failing grades for soot and smog pollution. The EPA estimated that the updated annual PM2.5 standard of 9 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3) would deliver $46 billion in health benefits by 2032, preventing 4,500 premature deaths, 2,000 emergency room visits, and 800,000 asthma cases.
Last year, EPA attempted to abandon its legal defense of the 2024 tightened PM2.5 NAAQs, siding with industry and aligned states seeking to overturn the rule. This would have forfeited health gains and jeopardized public health, especially for the most pollution-burdened communities. While this win to hold the EPA to its mission is an important precedent, we will continue to defend the clean air protections we fought to improve against ongoing planned rollbacks until justice prevails.
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Clean Air For The Long Haul, a nationwide coalition of environmental justice groups, coordinates federal rulemaking campaigns, centering overburdened communities, to reduce air pollution from power plants, cars, and trucks. The coalition seeks to catalyze the environmental justice movement through federal emissions reductions targeting United States power and transportation sectors. Coalition member organizations include: Duwamish River Community Coalition, Green Door Initiative, GreenLatinos, PODER Austin, Rise4EJ, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, West End Revitalization Association, and Wisconsin/Michigan Green Muslims.