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Illinois To Sue EPA For Exempting Foxconn Plant From Pollution Controls (reuters.com)

Last week, Reuters reported that "Illinois' Attorney General said she plans to sue the EPA for allowing a proposed Foxconn plant in neighboring Wisconsin to operate without stringent pollution controls." From the report: On Tuesday, the EPA identified 51 areas in 22 states that do not meet federal air quality requirements for ozone, a step toward enforcing the standards issued in 2015. An exempted area was Racine County, Wisconsin, just north of the Illinois border that is known to have heavily polluted air, where Taiwan-based Foxconn is building a $10 billion liquid-crystal display plant. Pollution monitoring data show the county's ozone levels exceed the 70 parts per billion (ppb) limit. If Racine County had been designated a "non-attainment" area, it would have required Foxconn to install stringent pollution control equipment.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan said she would file a lawsuit in the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the EPA's ozone designations, saying its failure to name Racine County a "non-attainment" area puts people at risk. "Despite its name, the Environmental Protection Agency now operates with total disregard for the quality of our air and water, and in this case, the U.S. EPA is putting a company's profit ahead of our natural resources and the public's health," Madigan said in a statement.

2 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Jobs not important? by jarkus4 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Given the factory will be in neighboring state I would say Illinois doesn't really get the benefits (taxes etc) and gets all the bad stuff as pollution doesn't care about borders

  2. Re:Jobs not important? by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Go ahead, sue, sue until Foxconn moves to other places, taking with it the job opportunities for people living in the area

    The jobs are not important. The plant will not employ many people to begin with, and it will employ even less in short order since Foxconn is a leader in automation.

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