Washington, DC—The Bush EPA this evening announced a flawed new
national air quality standard for ozone “smog” and called for sweeping
changes to the Clean Air Act that threaten to fundamentally weaken one
of the nation’s most important environmental laws, according to
Environment America.
“Ozone can harm even the healthiest lungs,
but today’s decision will leave many Americas at risk of asthma attacks
and other health problems from breathing dirty air,” said Emily Figdor,
Clean Air Advocate for Environment America.
The Clean Air
Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), a group of expert outside
scientists who advise the EPA Administrator on air quality standards,
unanimously recommended that EPA issue an ozone standard no greater
than 0.070 parts per million (ppm), but EPA Administrator Johnson this
evening announced a new standard of 0.075 ppm. The EPA’s own risk
estimates show that a standard of 0.075 ppm will result in hundreds of
more deaths and thousands of more visits to emergency rooms compared
with a standard of 0.070 ppm.
No previous administration has
ever rejected the CASAC’s scientific advice. The Bush EPA also ignored
the CASAC’s advice last year in setting a new standard for fine
particle “soot” pollution.
In addition, under the guise of
“modernizing” the Clean Air Act, the EPA Administrator called for
fundamental changes to the law, including requiring implementation
costs to be considered in setting air quality standards and allowing
states and local areas to ignore air pollution problems.
The
Clean Air Act requires air quality standards to be set based solely on
a pollutant’s impacts on public health, a matter of science—not
consideration of the potential costs of implementation of the standard.
“The
Bush EPA has been doing industry’s bidding for seven years, but this
takes the cake. These changes would strike at the heart of the Clean
Air Act and could take us back decades in protecting Americans from air
pollution,” said Figdor.
Ozone is a powerful pollutant that can
burn our lungs and airways, causing health effects ranging from
coughing and wheezing to asthma attacks and even premature death.
Children, senior citizens, and people with lung disease are
particularly vulnerable to the health effects of ozone.
Under
the Clean Air Act, the EPA must set air quality standards at levels
that protect public health, including sensitive populations, with an
adequate margin of safety.
Many industries have been lobbying
furiously in recent weeks for a weak ozone standard and have long
sought major changes to the Clean Air Act.
