By, TheIndianaLawyer.com
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency complied with the law in deciding which areas of the country failed to meet federal limits on smog-forming pollution that can cause asthma and respiratory illness.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected challenges from states, industry and environmental groups that claimed the agency was being either too strict or too lenient in determining which areas satisfied federal ozone restrictions.
States including Mississippi, Indiana and Texas had challenged the EPA’s finding that certain areas within their borders were violating the standard. A finding of noncompliance means states have to spend money to reduce ozone levels.
Connecticut and Delaware argued that the EPA should have designated more than a dozen eastern states in violation, saying their air quality was being hindered by other states.
But the court said the EPA’s decisions had not violated the Constitution or any provisions of the Clean Air Act.
EPA spokeswoman Liz Purchia said the agency is pleased with the decision and would continue to work with states “toward implementing ozone standards to protect public health as required by the Clean Air Act.”
The Obama administration recently proposed even stricter emission limits on ozone of 65 to 70 parts per billion, below the existing standard of 75 that President George W. Bush put in place in 2008. The EPA has estimated that cutting ozone emissions to 70 parts per billion would cost industry about $3.9 billion in 2025.
Business groups say the latest proposal is unnecessary and would be the costliest regulation in history.
Ozone, the main ingredient in smog, is a powerful lung irritant that has been linked to a range of health problems. Smog is created when emissions from cars, power plants, refineries and other factories mix in sunlight and heat.
I’m not so sure that Ozone is the Chief Pollutant in Summer Polluted Air. It’s an indicator pollutant that USEPA chose to monitor over many other air pollutants that exist in the summer time air in polluted areas. PAN and other dangerous volatile hydrocarbons probably make up more of the air pollution. Ozone was chosen for some reason. However it’s the most unstable air pollutant and very hard to accurately measure. Even the tubing that sucks in air to be tested can destroy the ozone as it’s being drawn into the intake of the Ozone monitor and give false negative readings. SO2 is the same way. The USEPA should be monitoring Sulfates and not SO2 as SO2 molecules are unstable too and quickly combine with water vapor and form Sulfates as the end product. SO2 molecules are “Scrubbed out” as they enter the sample lines if the inside surface of the sample lines are not kept very clean. Dirt in the air (fine Particulates) can adhere to the inside of the sample lines and scrub out the SO2 gas before it ever reaches the detector and the measurement of SO2 gas is taken for the record.
So the USEPA chose to monitor two pollutants that are unstable and are hard to monitor over other pollutants that could more easily be monitored. I wonder why they did that? Don’t you? Perhaps they really don’t want to know how polluted the air is and it’s just a big game that they are playing with all our lives? I mean the article above says that Billions of dollars in clean up costs are involved. People will kill someone for a few bucks some times. Makes me wonder just how far they would go to save a billion dollars. Can you say “Pelican Brief”.
Comments are closed.