Healthy Communities

The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will annually prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths, and nearly 5,000 heart attacks and 130,000 asthma attacks.

After Earthjustice and other organizations challenged a Bush EPA decision to refuse to limit carbon pollution from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act, the Supreme Court issued its historic 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, ruling that carbon emissions are “air pollutants” under the Clean Air Act. If carbon pollution threatens harm to public health or welfare, the Court added, the EPA must set limits on such pollution.