WASHINGTON (AP) — Twenty-four Republican-led states filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging a new Biden administration rule that sets tougher standards for deadly soot pollution. The EPA rule “will drive jobs and investment out of Kentucky and overseas, leaving employers and hardworking families to pay the price,” Coleman said. The soot rule is one of several EPA dictates under attack from industry groups and Republican-led states. Soot pollution has declined by 42% since 2000, even as the U.S. gross domestic product has increased by 52%, Regan said. The EPA said it will work with states, counties and tribes to account for and respond to wildfires, an increasing source of soot pollution, especially in the West.

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