Tlaib, health advocates sound alarm as EPA works to loosen pollution standard

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's effort to roll back federal particulate matter pollution standards will harm Michigan residents, particularly those who live near emitters such as manufacturing plants and refineries in Wayne County, health and environmental advocates warned Tuesday.

The move is a "clear giveaway to corporate polluters," said Kindra Weid, a critical care nurse in Washtenaw County who participated in a virtual press conference Tuesday with opponents of the EPA's actions. "People living with heart or lung conditions will feel the impact of these rollbacks and need stronger protections, not weaker ones."

Shortly after President Donald Trump took office last year, the EPA announced plans to reverse course on newly adopted particulate matter pollution standards the agency adopted under President Joe Biden in 2024, describing the stricter standards as a "major obstacle to permitting." EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the standards protect human health and the environment and will "unleash the Golden Age of American prosperity."

The EPA has asked the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to vacate the Biden-era rule before Feb. 7, when the EPA is set to finalize states' air quality nonattainment areas, which are places where air quality violates Clean Air Act standards.

This month, the EPA said it will stop calculating the financial toll pollution takes on Americans' health but will continue to calculate the financial toll regulations take on businesses. Ignoring the savings on health care spending that follows pollution control means prioritizing business interests over people's health, said Teresa Homsi, executive director of Michigan Clinicians for Climate Action.

“If a standard can save thousands of lives, eliminating it amounts to letting thousands of people die," Homsi said. "For the EPA, that's an uncomfortable, inconvenient truth. Now they're trying to sow doubt in the scientific reasoning that gives us those estimates."

Pieces of fine particulate matter, known as PM 2.5, are so small they can get deep into people's lungs and blood. Exposure to fine particulates can irritate airways and trigger coughing, sneezing or shortness of breath. Exposure also exacerbates asthma, heart disease and heart attack risk.

Fine particulates are emitted by burning fossil fuels in vehicles, factories and power plants. Smoke from wildfires and other burned material also carries fine particulate matter.

Detroit earned an F grade for particulate matter pollution in the American Lung Association's 2025 State of the Air report. The association believes the stricter pollution standards should be implemented to protect public health, said Kezia Ofosu Atta, its director of advocacy in Ohio and Michigan.

Returning to looser standards for the pollutant would make air quality in Wayne County even worse, said U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit. She described a scene in Dearborn's southend, part of her district, where schools and playgrounds are adjacent to a heavy industrial area that includes the Ford Rouge Complex, Cleveland-Cliffs' Dearborn Works steel facility, trucks, trains and the natural gas-powered Dearborn Industrial Generation facility.

Parents and others in the neighborhood are "petrified" about the levels of air pollution and are afraid it will get worse with the Trump administration's attempted rollbacks, Tlaib said.

"We already know many of the corporate polluters around our communities violate their own air permits," she said. "Now, I just feel they are never going to be held accountable and it's never going to have the kind of enforcement that needs to happen."

The stricter particulate matter standards the EPA adopted in 2024 would lower the annual standard for fine particulate pollution from 12 micrograms per cubic meter to 9. Under that standard, three Michigan counties, Wayne, Kalamazoo and Kent, would be considered "nonattainment," meaning the counties' air quality would be poor enough to be out of compliance with the Clean Air Act, Homsi said.

The Biden administration's tougher particulate matter standards were criticized by industry and economic development officials. Mike Alaimo, Michigan Chamber of Commerce senior director of legislative and external affairs, said in a 2023 Detroit News column the pollution limits would "hurt our state's economy and hard-working families."

"Businesses may need to purchase new equipment or make expensive facility retrofits," he said in 2023. "It may involve emission offset credits among our state’s industrial and commercial operations — all these costs translate to higher prices for consumers who rely on these products and services."

Tlaib, environmental advocacy groups and people affected by pollution argued the 2024 standards weren't tough enough.

"We were already compromising with the industry in that sense," Tlaib said Tuesday. "We know this is a direct attack on our health and quality of life."

Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy is charged with enforcing federal and state air quality regulations. Tlaib criticized the department for failing to deny air quality permits that allow facilities to pollute even when the pollution takes place in already polluted areas or when the facilities have a history of violating permits.

"EGLE's Air Quality Division remains committed to its mission of protecting the environment and public health," EGLE spokesman Josef Stephens said in an email in response to a question about the federal change's impact on Michigan air pollution. "As part of this mission, the AQD will continue enforcing all applicable state and federal air quality rules and regulations.

"We are aware of the federal government's proposed regulatory updates and are closely monitoring their development. At this time, it is not yet clear what impact federal changes may have should they move forward."

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