Lawsuit Seeks to Block EPA From Abandoning Health of Clevelanders

CLEVELAND – A coalition of environmental and public health organizations filed a federal lawsuit today challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to let Cleveland off the hook from having to clean up its smog-choked air. The EPA is relying on unlawful excuses to force residents to keep breathing unhealthy air — rewritten deadlines, ignored legal obligations, and pollution cuts claimed from clean-car standards the agency has already repealed.

“EPA is flouting the law and bending over backwards for polluters while Ohio families breathe air that makes them sick,” said Abi Vijayan, senior climate attorney at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). “Clean air protections exist to safeguard lives, Trump’s EPA doesn't get to ignore the law because polluters find it inconvenient.”

The lawsuit, filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, challenges the EPA’s decision to deny communities in Cleveland the strongest smog cleanup required by law. The Trump EPA’s decision violates the plain text of the Clean Air Act and defies legal precedent. The groups are asking the court to vacate EPA’s redesignation of the Cleveland area as “in attainment” of smog standards, thus maintaining cleanup measures communities are owed under the law.

“Declaring the area in ‘attainment’ does lasting damage of its own,” says Brian Siggers, Cleveland Metro Advocacy Director for the Ohio Environmental Council. “It erases the stricter permitting rules that new and expanding industrial polluters would otherwise have to face, stripping away some of the last meaningful checks on pollution left in the region. Once those protections are gone, they don't come back easily, and neither does the air Clevelanders will be forced to breathe while EPA's math catches up to reality."

The American Lung Association's 2026 "State of the Air" report gave Cuyahoga, Lake, and Portage counties "F" grades for ozone pollution. The health protections that the coalition is fighting to uphold guard against dangerous levels of smog pollution that can trigger asthma attacks, cause cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and can lead to premature death. Smog is especially dangerous for children, older adults, and people who work or exercise outdoors as hotter, climate-driven summers make ozone pollution worse. EPA is allowing for increased pollution with one hand while dismantling the cleanup with the other.

“No one should have to negotiate to breathe clean, safe air, but the EPA continues to disregard and outright attack our public health by letting the State of Ohio get away with not having to comply with key provisions of the Clean Air Act intended to prevent ozone pollution. Clean air is the bare minimum, and the folks in the impacted Cleveland area deserve to have a long-term plan that protects public health and safety,” said Neil Waggoner, Midwest Beyond Coal Campaign Manager for Sierra Club.

The math behind EPA's decision is just as brazen. Ohio's plan to keep Cleveland's air clean through 2038 claims the overwhelming majority of its pollution reductions from federal clean-vehicle standards, which EPA repealed in February 2026 as part of its rollback of climate protections for cars and trucks. 

Cleveland families should have access to clean air and a clear and actionable plan that gives them confidence that progress will continue. If Ohio's plan relies on standards that no longer exist, then we have to question whether it is about to deliver the clean air that Clevelanders deserve. 

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health, and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd.