Excerpts from Washington Post article by Juliet Eilperin
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed stricter limits recently on the amount of pollution-forming ozone allowed in the air, significantly tightening rules the Bush administration had set for the nation’s most widespread air pollutant.
The new rules, which must undergo 60 days of public comment before becoming final, would help determine the quality of the air Americans will breathe for at least a decade. The change, which represents only the third time in nearly 40 years that the standards have been toughened, could cost industry billions, while preventing thousands of premature deaths a decade from now, the EPA maintains.
The stricter standards would limit ozone in the air to 60 to 70 parts per billion for any eight-hour period, down from 75 ppb. Although the percentage change sounds small, Thursday’s move ensures that state and local governments would face a much stricter air quality test in the years ahead.
The final target that the Obama administration adopts will have major implications for the regulations that state and local officials will have to set to meet the new federal requirements, which will become final between 2014 and 2031, depending on the region. Power plants and motor vehicles are significant emitters of pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and other chemical compounds, which form ozone when exposed to sunlight, but sources as small as gas lawn mowers could face new restrictions depending on what EPA chooses as its ultimate goal.
Exposure to ground-level ozone, or smog, is linked to an array of heart and respiratory illnesses. Smog causes burning and inflammation in sensitive tissues and can harm wilderness areas and farm crops by stunting the growth of trees and plants.
“Smog in the air we breathe poses a very serious health threat, especially to children and individuals suffering from asthma and lung disease, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a statement. “Using the best science to strengthen these standards is a long overdue action that will help millions of Americans breathe easier and live healthier.”
EPA also announced that as part of its new smog proposal it will also set a secondary, seasonal limit to protect plants and trees from prolonged exposure to ozone.
S. William Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, said state and local officials are committed to tackling the nation’s smog problem despite the “daunting challenges” doing so poses. “Though the task of putting new, better standards into practice won’t be easy, it will most certainly be worth it,” he said.
But the administration’s plan could spark resistance among industries that will face new regulatory requirements, including utilities that have already cut their nitrogen oxide emissions in recent years.
Edison Electric Institute spokesman Dan Riedinger, whose group represents the majority of electricity generators in the United States, said “there’s huge uncertainty about what this and other regulatory requirements will entail for utilities and other sectors.”
Children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to smog: Studies show that children who grow up in areas with high ozone concentrations never develop the same lung capacity as those who live in less polluted areas, and that they are more likely to develop asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
