New federal rules to reduce unhealthy smog, don’t go far enough to protect public health, according to a host of environmental organizations, while business and industry groups claim they’ll be effective only in damaging the economy.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it is lowering the standard for ozone, the primary component of smog, from 75 parts per billion to 70 parts per billion effective in 2025, a reduction EPA Administer Gina McCarthy said will “ better protect public health.”
“Put simply – ozone pollution means it hurts to breathe for those most vulnerable: our kids, our elderly and those suffering from heart and lung ailments,” said Ms. McCarthy.
She said attainment of the new standard will annually reduce missed school days by 160,000, asthma attacks by 23,000, and premature deaths by 660, while providing between $2.9 billion and $5.9 billion in health care savings, well above the expected costs of implementation.
Ground level ozone, the main component of unhealthy smog, forms when sunlight cooks emissions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds from vehicles, factories and power plants. Smog can exacerbate asthma, other respiratory illnesses and cause premature death, as well as stunt tree and crop growth. And recent scientific studies show the 75 parts per billion standard established in 2008 is not effective in protecting public health.
Despite the EPA’s reduction, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune, said the Obama Administration had missed an opportunity to set a smog standard that fully protects “the most vulnerable Americans.”
Meanwhile, industry groups critiqued the the stricter standards, saying the health benefits aren't worth the costs. Independent Petroleum Association of America Executive Vice President Lee Fuller said the EPA should instead develop cost-effective programs that target the nation’s highest ozone areas. And the American Petroleum Institute, a national trade association for the oil and gas industry, called for Congressional action to block the EPA standards, saying they “could be the most expensive regulation ever with a cost of as much as $270 billion per year while placing millions of jobs at risk.”
But the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, the organization representing local government administrators who will implement the new ozone limits, dismissed industry cost estimates as “hyperbole,” and said most areas are either already in compliance or on the path to it as the result of other, already existing, pollution control measures for vehicles and industry.
If the new standard were in effect today, eight Pennsylvania counties would be in nonattainment, including two in southwestern Pennsylvania,: Allegheny and Armstrong counties.
First Published: October 1, 2015, 7:20 p.m.
Updated: October 2, 2015, 3:24 a.m.