The Environmental Protection Agency is strengthening limits on fine particulate matter, The rule illustrates the challenges facing the Biden administration as it balances two priorities: Reducing pollution in overburdened communities and reviving U.S. manufacturing. It comes as Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner, campaigns on a pledge to dismantle many of President Biden’s environmental and economic policies. Fine particulate matter, which includes soot, can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Exposure to these tiny particles has been linked to asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes and other ailments. The EPA is lowering the annual soot standard to 9 micrograms per cubic meter of air, down from the standard of 12 micrograms. When fully implemented in 2032, the stricter limit could prevent up to 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays per year, according to the agency. “The stronger air quality standard announced today is grounded in the best available science and will undoubtedly save lives,” Scientific studies have shown that reducing “This is a major piece of Biden’s commitment to advancing environmental justice,” said Matthew Davis, vice president of federal policy at the League of Conservation Voters who previously worked on the soot rule as an EPA staffer during the Obama administration. Major industrial sources of soot pollution include power plants, cement plants, refineries and vehicles. States can ask the EPA to exclude wildfire smoke, the leading nonindustrial source, from their air quality data. Experts say industry can reduce its soot output by installing pollution-control technologies, such as scrubbers at power plants. The EPA projects that compliance with the stronger soot rule could cost industry up to $590 million annually in 2032, although it could save up to $46 billion in health-care costs. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s biggest business lobby, has estimated that around 18 percent of all U.S. counties could be out of compliance with a limit of 9 micrograms. Companies in these 569 counties would have trouble getting permits to build or expand their industrial plants, potentially prompting them to move to other nations with weaker environmental rules, the group says. That outcome could undermine Biden’s election-year pitch that his agenda has revitalized domestic manufacturing. On the campaign trail, the president has highlighted new electric vehicle battery plants spurred by his signature climate law, construction projects encouraged by the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and computer chip factories subsidized by the 2022 semiconductor law. “This is throwing up roadblocks to building the very infrastructure we need to create that cleaner economy of the future,” said Marty Durbin, senior vice president for policy at the Chamber. “Whether it’s roads and bridges or … solar and wind facilities, manufacturing is going to be affected.” A senior EPA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, rejected such claims from the Chamber and other industry groups, including the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Forest and Paper Association. The official said the industry groups relied on soot measurements from air monitors that are dozens of miles away from the relevant counties. Based on measurements from nearby air monitors, the EPA projects that only 52 counties would not meet a limit of 9 micrograms in 2032, the official added. Patrice Simms, vice president for healthy communities at the environmental law firm Earthjustice, said business groups have warned for decades about the devastating consequences of environmental rules — yet such harms “We heard this in the ’70s, when lobbyists said that if we required catalytic converters for cars, the whole industry was going to collapse,” Simms said. “Well, guess what? We’re fine. This is the same tired playbook of trying to undermine progress.” The soot standard was last updated in 2012 during the Obama administration. In 2020, the Trump administration rejected stronger soot limits, siding with industry groups that said the current limit was protective enough. In 2018, Andrew Wheeler, Trump’s acting EPA chief, disbanded a panel of outside experts tasked with advising the agency on soot standards. These experts had often encouraged the EPA to set tougher limits on the six air pollutants that it is legally obligated to regulate.