Lawsuits seek reversal of smog break for Wisconsin Foxconn plant, Indiana steel mills

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-madigan-emanuel-smog-lawsuit-foxconn-20180802-story.html# 
 
Two lawsuits filed Thursday urge a federal appeals court to force 
southeast Wisconsin and northwest Indiana to comply with the latest 
limits on lung-damaging smog, targeting a Trump administration 
rollback intended to benefit Foxconn Technology Group and a handful of 
other big industrial companies. 
 
The legal challenges — one filed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa 
Madigan and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and another by two 
Chicago-based environmental groups — cite the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency’s own records and data in seeking to overturn the 
exemptions. 
 
Among other things, last-minute changes by Trump political appointees 
saved Taiwan-based Foxconn from having to make expensive improvements 
as it builds a massive electronics plant in Racine County, just north 
of the Illinois border in an area with some of the region’s dirtiest 
air. 
 
The lawsuits also highlight the Trump EPA’s last-minute decision to 
remove all of McHenry County, Ill., and Porter County, Ind., and part 
of Lake County, Ind., from a list of areas that contribute to chronic 
smog problems in the Chicago area. 
 
“The U.S. EPA is ignoring its own scientific data in order to put 
industry profits ahead of the public’s health,” Madigan said in a