"Dealing a blow to the Trump administration and business groups, a federal appeals court will allow California and a half-dozen other states to intervene in litigation to defend U.S. EPA's 2015 ground-level ozone standard.

A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the states' motion without comment in a one-page order released this morning.

The seven Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia had made the request early last month, citing fears that EPA will no longer forcefully defend the 70-parts-per-billion threshold, which was set under the Obama administration."

Sean Reilly reports for Greenwire August 2, 2017. [2]