Ozone

Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch announced that Rhode Island has joined a coalition of 13 other states, New York City, and Washington, DC, in suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to protect the public health and the environment.

Lynch said that the EPA and the Bush Administration are in violation of the Clean Air Act by having set weak standards that do not effectively regulate the amount of ground-level ozone air pollution allowed in the atmosphere.    » read more »

New Jersey Joins Multi-State Challenge to EPA Ozone Standards; Federal Lawsuit Alleges Violation of the Clean Air Act

May 28, 2008 -- TRENTON - New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram announced today that New Jersey has joined with 13 other states in challenging revised, ground-level ozone standards set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as weak and inadequate to protect the public health and welfare.

Industrial wasteland, New Jersey: Photo by Ari Moore (CC)    » read more »

Illinois Joins Other States to Petition EPA to Adopt More Stringent Standards To Better Protect Public Health

May 28, 2008 -- Chicago - Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, 13 other states, the District of Columbia and New York City have filed a petition with the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. seeking review of a final rule issued March 27, 2008, in which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopted the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone.    » read more »

May 20, 2008 -- The Committee held holding a hearing titled, “EPA’s New Ozone Standards” at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20, 2008, in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.

The hearing examined the new ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) and the process the Environmental Protection Agency used in setting them.    » read more »

May 20, 2008 -- A House Judiciary Committee investigation has uncovered details of White House involvement in EPA’s regulation of ozone on the eve of a court imposed deadline, forcing EPA staff to scrap a standard supported by its independent panel and to perform “emergency rewrites” to the regulation.

Documents obtained by the Committee show that EPA staff raised serious concerns about the merits and legality of the decision.

Click here for more information and supporting documents.

Source: Oversight Committee

Washington, D.C., May 19, 2008 -- EPA today honored 39 individuals, organizations and companies from around the world for their outstanding efforts to protect the Earth's climate and stratospheric ozone layer. The award recipients have demonstrated ingenuity and leadership by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, negotiating international agreements to protect the ozone layer and climate, and spreading awareness about the importance of these issues.

“Efforts to help restore the ozone layer and fight climate change will benefit the planet for generations to come,” said Bob Meyers, principal deputy assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Air & Radiation. “We commend the 2008 Climate and Ozone Layer Protection Award winners for their work to protect our environment.”    » read more »

April 21 -- The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) has issued a High Pollution Advisory for ozone for the Phoenix metropolitan area. Forecasted weather conditions on Tuesday, April 22 are expected to generate levels of ozone that may exceed the federal health standard.

Smog over Phoenix, Arizona: Photo by Bel Vezer (CC)

ADEQ recommends that children and adults with respiratory problems avoid outdoor activities on Thursday and suggests that the general public limit outdoor activity throughout the day.    » read more »

April 16, 2008 -- Oversight Committee Chairman Waxman issued a subpoena to compel the White House Office of Management and Budget to provide documents relating to EPA’s recent decision to establish ozone air quality standards that disregarded the recommendations of EPA staff and EPA’s independent scientific review committee.

Chairman Waxman made the following statement,

“Deadline after deadline has slipped and the White House has not provided the documents the Committee needs to understand what happened with this EPA rulemaking. We need these documents so that we can evaluate the President’s decision to overrule EPA and its panel of independent experts.”

Source: Oversight Committee

WASHINGTON (April 10, 2008) — Attention allergy sufferers: Climate change is bad for your health. Recent scientific studies have found that rising temperatures and higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are lengthening the allergy season and changing how plants produce allergens.

Sneeze: Photo by Matt Musselman (CC)

Meanwhile, other studies have determined that rising temperatures combined with vehicle pollution can trigger more ground-level ozone — a pollutant that causes respiratory problems — especially in urban areas that already suffer from poor air quality.    » read more »

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Calling the presence of ozone in the western Wyoming air a “significant concern,” today Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal responded to a citizen petition requesting that a health assessment be performed in Sublette County.

The letter from Freudenthal to Pamela Curry of Pinedale, who forwarded the petition, follows.

April 10, 2008

Pamela Curry
P.O. Box 1002
Pinedale, WY 82941

Dear Ms. Curry:

Thank you for your letter requesting that a Human Health Impact Assessment be conducted in Sublette County due to air quality and other concerns. From the data that has been collected, there is little doubt that ozone is a significant concern.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., March 14, 2008 -- This week, EPA met its requirements under the Clean Air Act and signed the most stringent 8-hour standard ever for ozone, revising the standards for the first time in more than a decade. The agency based the changes on the full breadth of the most recent scientific evidence about the effects of ozone, the primary component of smog.    » read more »

Expert Panel had provided “overwhelming scientific evidence” that ozone exposure leads to adverse health effects; recommended stricter air pollution standard

March 14, 2008 -- Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today called on EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to explain why he overruled the recommendation of scientific advisors, and decided to issue a weaker standard for air pollution. Senator Feinstein chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies.    » read more »

Washington, DC (March 12, 2008). Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a critical tightening of the health-based National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone. We wish we could be happier about this decision, but we cannot. The standard announced today, although an improvement, falls far short of the requirements of the Clean Air Act.    » read more »

New Standards Not Enough To Protect Against Harmful Smog Pollution

WASHINGTON (March 12, 2008) -- In a move that will begin to protect Americans from dangerous smog but fails to make the nation’s air truly safe to breathe for everyone, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced new standards for the amount of ground-level ozone (or smog) allowed in the air, according to clean air experts at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).    » read more »

EPA Falls Short on Science

March 12, 2008 -- Washington, D.C.: Against the advice of its own scientific advisors, the EPA today set new ozone standards which, while an improvement over the existing standard, still favors polluting industries over public health.    » read more »