The new standard, announced by EPA Director Gina McCarthy, likely will force the utility industry and manufacturers to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on new “scrubbers” and other anti-pollution devices to lower emissions of ozone and fine particles to 70 parts per billion. While compliance challenges remain with the new standard at 70 ppb, EPA has recognized the serious implementation concerns raised by stakeholders of setting the standard below 70 ppb.
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“Given the amount of political pressure they’re under, it’s not surprising”, said Altenburg. Mr. Staub, who founded his company 18 years ago and has 26 employees today, said a standard of 65 parts per billion would have been “unattainable for anyone in the manufacturing industry”.
The committee “advises that, based on the scientific evidence, a level of 70 ppb provides little margin of safety for the protection of public health, particularly for sensitive subpopulations”, it wrote.
Ozone, commonly called smog, is a greenhouse gas that forms from the exhaust of cars, trucks, power plants and factories.
The key question for industry and environmental groups in advance of Thursday’s widely-anticipated announcement was how low the EPA would go in revising the standard. Heartwell, known as a strong supporter of tighter environmental regulations, recently signed a letter with 70 other USA mayors in 24 states supporting the new ozone limit. Ground-level ozone is associated with shortness of breath and aggravated lung conditions among people who breathe it, especially children and the elderly. Those rules aim to cut carbon emissions from power plants.
The agency said the standard would have annual public-health benefits valued between $2.9 billion and $5.9 billion. The effort has taken a lot of time, many volunteer hours and, of course, plenty of money to complete.
Environmental groups sued the EPA in 2013 over its delays.
For the past few months, the National Black Chamber of Commerce president, Harry C. Alford, has been penning op-eds in local newspapers, appearing on radio shows, and traveling to different cities to speak on a pressing issue: smog levels in urban communities.
Pollution levels in 14 Indiana counties – including Marion – are higher than new ozone limits the federal government announced Thursday to reduce urban smog.
The standard appears likely to keep pressure on Maryland to further reduce the state’s already much-diminished air pollution.
“The 2008 standards are not adequate to protect public health and need to be revised”, she added.
Harold P. Wimmer, national president and CEO of the American Lung Association, did say in a statement that the new standard “offers significantly greater protection than the previous, outdated standard”. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement.
The EPA defended the move.
McCarthy said that she had consulted 1,000 new scientific studies since that time, which showed that 72 ppb was “the lowest ozone exposure that protects against adverse effects on the health of active adults”, leading her to decide on 70 ppb. The measurement averaged over three years, the National Park Service informs, is used to evaluate attainment for the ozone standard. More than 90% of counties with ozone monitors are meeting a 75-parts-per- billion limit, according to an EPA spokeswoman. Ozone is the triad of oxygen molecules that is one of the nastier ingredients in smog.
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“With each new rule, it seems like nothing will stop the EPA from its attempts to destroy jobs, drag down our economy, and impose its centralized standards despite opposition around the country”, said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “Wyoming and other states have spoken out against this inflexible and unrealistic approach”.
