Taking on the challenge of controlling dangerous air pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is set to issue a new rule that Republicans hate.
As ThinkProgress explains:
The Environmental Protection Agency is scheduled to release its final rule on ozone levels by October 1, a regulation that will seek to reduce the amount of ozone in the air. Ozone is the main ingredient in smog and is created when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds – both of which can come from car exhaust, gasoline, and power plants – interact with sunlight. Right now the EPA’s standard for ground-level ozone is set at 75 parts per billion (ppb). Last year, the agency proposed to lower this standard of acceptable ozone levels to somewhere between 65 and 70 ppb.
The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee of the EPA recommended that the lower bound be set at 60 ppb as it would help with negative health effects and respiratory issues.
“The recommended lower bound of 60 ppb would certainly offer more public health protection than levels of 70 ppb or 65 ppb and would provide an adequate margin of safety,” the committee said in a letter. “Thus, our policy advice is to set the level of the standard lower than 70 ppb within a range of 60 ppb, taking into account your judgment regarding the desired margin of safety to protect publican health, and taking into account that lower levels will provide incrementally greater margins of safety.”
Conservative groups, expectedly, argue that any efforts, such as limiting the emission of ozone, will cause job losses and damage industry efforts, restricting growth.
For more on this, read the article from ThinkProgress titled: “The EPA Is Set to Issue Rule Curbing a Dangerous Form of Air Pollution.”
