WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency today over its delay in responding to challenges to air-pollution permits for oil and gas processing facilities in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.

The lawsuit aims to compel the administration to review permits that fail to hold the oil and gas industry accountable for cleaning up their polluting air emissions.

“The Clean Air Act is clear that our health and environment come first,” said Jeremy Nichols, a senior advocate at the Center. “This lawsuit is about defending clean air and confronting the Trump administration’s attempt to give the oil and gas industry a free pass to pollute.”

In October the Center filed legal petitions requesting that the EPA object to the three air-pollution permits, which violated the Clean Air Act by failing to ensure adequate monitoring and by sanctioning loopholes that allowed excessively filthy air.

One petition challenged the air-pollution permit for the Young Compressor Station, an expansive oil and gas processing and storage facility in Morgan County northeast of Denver, Colorado; the second challenged the permit for the Harvest Central Delivery Point, a large oil and gas handling facility in San Juan County in northwestern New Mexico; and the third challenged the permit for the Altamont South Compressor Station, a massive oil and gas processing facility located in Duchesne County in northeast New Mexico.

All three facilities are major sources of toxic air pollution, including smog-forming volatile organic compounds and other harmful gases.

The EPA was required under the Clean Air Act to grant or deny the petitions within 60 days, but the Trump administration has yet to respond.

If the EPA grants the Center’s petitions, the states will be required to make sure the permits fully meet Clean Air Act specifications or the EPA will be required to take over the permits and potentially deny them.

Today’s lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. This latest legal challenge follows a similar suit by the Center challenging the Trump administration’s failure to respond to a challenge of an air-pollution permit for a heavy metals mine in southern Arizona.

More information about the Center’s fight against air pollution is available at Protecting Air Quality Under the Clean Air Act.