EPA administrator and former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler acted Monday to lock in status quo industrial soot pollution limits for another five years, disregarding the emerging scientific link between air pollution and COVID-19 death rates. Ultrafine industrial soot, known as PM2.5, is especially harmful to human health because the particles, 1/30 the width of a human hair, can enter into the lungs and bloodstream. Public health experts and environmental justice advocates slammed the move. Industrial pollution like PM2.5 is heavily concentrated in poor communities and communities of color, and the status quo is “an artificially high standard that is supportive of industry,” Bridgette Murray, who lives in Houston’s Pleasantville neighborhood, near a massive shipping channel, several petrochemical plants, and heavy truck traffic, told the Washington Post. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, EPA scientists found strengthening PM2.5 standards could save more than 10,000 American lives per year. “This flies in the face of good science and good public health. It is outrageous,” Dominique Browning, co-founder and the head of Moms Clean Air Force, told the Post. “It just basically sends a message of not caring about people.” The coal industry cheered the move. President-elect Biden could reassess and strengthen the standards after taking office. (Washington Post $, New York Times $, Reuters, Politico Pro $, E&E $, The Hill, AP)