WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is delaying plans to tighten air high quality requirements for ground-level ozone — higher often known as smog — regardless of a suggestion by a scientific advisory panel to decrease air air pollution limits to guard public well being.
The resolution by EPA Administrator Michael Regan implies that one of many company’s most essential air high quality rules is not going to be up to date till properly after the 2024 presidential election.
“I have decided that the best path forward is to initiate a new statutory review of the ozone (standard) and the underlying air quality criteria,” Regan wrote in a letter to the EPA advisory panel final month. The letter cites “several issues” raised by the panel in a current report that “warrant additional evaluation and review.”
The assessment, which can final at the very least two years, will “ensure that air quality standards reflect the latest science in order to best protect people from pollution,” Regan mentioned.
Regan’s resolution avoids an election yr battle with business teams and Republicans who’ve complained about what they take into account overly intrusive EPA guidelines on energy crops, refineries, cars and different polluters.
The delay marks the second time in 12 years {that a} Democratic administration has delay a brand new ozone normal previous to an election yr. President Barack Obama shut down plans to tighten ozone requirements in 2011, resulting in a four-year delay earlier than the requirements had been up to date in 2015.
Paul Billings, senior vp of the American Lung Association, referred to as the EPA’s resolution “profoundly disappointing” and a missed alternative to guard public well being and promote environmental justice. A current report by the lung affiliation confirmed that minority communities bear a disproportionate burden from ground-level ozone, which happens when air air pollution from vehicles, energy crops and different sources mixes with daylight. The downside is especially acute in city areas.
Billings referred to as the ozone rule “the public health cornerstone of the Clean Air Act,” including that “millions of people will breathe dirty air for many more years” on account of the delay. An elevated variety of bronchial asthma assaults, sick days and even untimely loss of life are more likely to happen, he and different public well being advocates mentioned.
Raul Garcia, vp of coverage and laws for Earthjustice, referred to as the delay “shameful” and unjustified. “The science tells us we are long overdue,” Garcia mentioned.
Democratic lawmakers additionally had been disillusioned. “Inaction threatens public health and puts those with underlying conditions such as asthma or lung disease at an elevated risk,” mentioned Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. He and 51 different Democrats had urged swift motion on a brand new rule.
“Unfortunately we’ve seen the process for updating the ozone standards repeatedly swept up in political games that risk lives,” the lawmakers mentioned in an Aug. 7 letter to the EPA.
Conor Bernstein, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, applauded the EPA’s resolution “not to race ahead with an unnecessary revision of the ozone standards,” which haven’t been modified since 2015. The present normal was reaffirmed in December 2020 beneath then-President Donald Trump, a Republican.
Bernstein, whose members produce coal and different fossil fuels, urged officers to rethink different rules that he mentioned goal coal-fired energy crops and endanger reliability of the electrical grid. “It’s clear – and deeply alarming – that EPA (does not) understand the cumulative impact its rules will have on the grid and the nation’s severely stressed power supply,” he mentioned.
A spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute, the highest lobbying group for the oil and gasoline business, mentioned present ozone limits are among the many most stringent on the earth. “Any tightening of the standard could impact energy costs, threaten U.S. energy security and impact businesses and American consumers,” spokeswoman Andrea Woods mentioned in an e-mail.
The EPA’s resolution comes after two advisory panels – the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council – urged the company to decrease the present ozone normal of 70 elements per billion.
“Based on the scientific evidence currently available, it is concluded that the level of the current standard is not protective with an adequate margin of safety,” the EPA panel mentioned in a June report. A restrict of 55 to 60 elements per billion “is more likely to be protective and to provide an adequate margin of safety,” the panel mentioned.
Lianne Sheppard, a University of Washington biostatistics professor who chairs the scientific advisory panel, mentioned Regan’s resolution was “his alone” to make.
“However, I am disappointed, given the robust scientific evidence that ozone is harmful to public health and welfare,” she instructed E&E News final month.
The White House environmental justice council, in the meantime, cited the “horrible toll of air pollution” and its disproportionate impact on minority communities. In a letter to the White House, co-chairs Richard Moore and Peggy Shepard mentioned the issue is “compounded by the inadequate monitoring and enforcement in many of our communities.”
Moore is co-director of Los Jardines Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, whereas Sheppard is co-founder and govt director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice in New York City.
Tomas Carbonell, a high official within the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, mentioned the report by the scientific panel left the EPA with little alternative however to launch a complete assessment despite the fact that all however one panel member supported a stricter ozone normal.
“When we’re looking at our national air quality standards, there’s really no way to cut corners around that process,” Carbonell mentioned in an interview.
The company will convene workshops subsequent spring to assemble info and can launch a assessment plan for motion in late 2024, he mentioned. A remaining resolution may very well be years away.
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