US EPA seeks tighter ozone requirements to chop air pollution – Reuters

Wed Nov 26, 2014 9:34pm IST

(Updates with EPA announcement, response from teams)

By way of Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON Nov 26 (Reuters) – The Obama administration onWednesday proposed stricter curbs on floor-stage ozone, apollutant linked to a couple of severe well being prerequisites, in a moveindustry teams mentioned would location a heavy burden on the useconomy.

The Environmental Safety Company stated it could setNational Ambient Air High quality Same old between sixty five and 70 partsper billion focus of ozone and imagine public commentson requirements inside a 60 to seventy five ppb vary.

The EPA should finalize the rule of thumb by using October. It’s going to replacethe present same old of seventy five ppb set in 2008.

The decrease restrict would imply much less smoke from energy vegetation andcar exhaust pipes, leading to slightly cleaner air and reducedsmog.

“Bringing ozone pollution standards in line with the latestscience will clean up our air, improve access to crucial airquality information, and protect those most at-risk,” said EPAAdministrator Gina McCarthy. “It empowers the American peoplewith updated air quality information to protect our loved ones.”

The proposal will apply cars and power plants as well as oiland gas facilities. Health advocates and environmentalistshailed the plan as a way to cut down on asthma, heart diseaseand other respiratory illnesses.

The tougher standards would be closer to a proposal draftedin 2011 but unexpectedly withdrawn by President Barack Obamabefore its release because of cost concerns while the nation wasrecovering from a recession.

Obama then directed the EPA to craft a new proposal. When itfailed to act, groups including the American Lung Association,the Sierra Club and the Environmental Defense Fund sued for acourt-ordered deadline.

“EPA’s proposal to strengthen the standard is a vital stepforward in the fight to protect all Americans from the dangersof breathing ozone pollution,” said American Lung AssociationPresident Harold Wimmer.

Industry groups had braced for a standard as low as 60 ppband estimated a price tag of $270 billion a year at that level,according to the National Association of Manufacturers.

“This new standard comes at the same time dozens of othernew EPA regulations are being imposed that collectively placeincreased costs, burdens and delays on manufacturers, threatenour international competitiveness and make it nearly impossibleto grow jobs,” said the association’s president, Jay Timmons.

Howard Feldman, regulatory affairs director at the AmericanPetroleum Institute, said U.S. air quality was improving withoutregulatory change and that meeting the new standards would beextremely difficult.

But McCarthy said the economic cost of inaction was greatbecause of health problems that cause people to miss work orschool.

“If the standards are finalized, every dollar we invest tomeet them will return up to three dollars in health benefits,”McCarthy said. That could add up to $38 billion to the U.S.economy by 2025 if the emissions price is ready at sixty five ppb, whilecompliance prices could be $15 billion, she delivered.

“Wholesome communities appeal to new companies, new funding,and new jobs,” McCarthy wrote in an editorial revealed on CNN’swebsite.

In making the rule of thumb, EPA scientists reviewed greater than 1,000studies revealed for the reason that ultimate requirements had been set.

Terry McGuire, the Sierra Membership’s Washington representativeon smog air pollution, mentioned Obama, who just isn’t up for re-election,used to be now freer to behave aggressively and will have to push the restrict downas a ways as 60 ppb.

“This will have to be a centerpiece of his environmental legacy,”McGuire mentioned.

Below the suggestion, U.S. states would have from 2020 to 2037to enforce the brand new requirements, according to their present pollutionlevels. The EPA additionally mentioned flexibility to permit for “distinctive”scenarios, similar to in California, a major state with a variedenvironment. (Reporting via Valerie Volcovici and Susan Heavey; Enhancing byRos Krasny, Peter Cooney and Lisa Von Ahn)

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