The Las Vegas strip is bound to get more congested, not less, if the Environmental Protection Agency moves forward with new national rules to reduce smog-forming ozone pollution.
That’s the message of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s latest report on the potential transportation calamities in store for cities under the EPA’s new air quality rule for ground-level ozone. Under the rule, cities that fail to meet the new standard could have a harder time spending federal highway dollars.
“Las Vegas area commuters already face some of the toughest traffic in the nation, and now key projects intended to help like Project Neon, the CC-215 Las Vegas Beltway widening, and implementation of bus rapid transit are all being threatened by unreasonable standards that the region will have extreme difficulty meeting,” said Karen Harbert, president of the chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy.
The new report was released less than two weeks before President Obama is set to visit the city to give the keynote speech at Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s annual clean energy summit. Obama is expected to address his victories in promoting renewable energy and new landmark climate regulations for power plants. The ozone rule is one of several controversial rules EPA is developing.
The National Association of Manufacturers also launched an ad campaign in Colorado on Tuesday, underscoring the negative effects the ozone rule would have on economic growth and business if enacted.
It’s all part of a multi-prong push against the EPA ozone rule, which the manufacturers call the most expensive federal regulation in history, totaling $1.7 trillion in costs to the U.S. economy between 2017-2040.
The U.S. chamber’s Vegas report follows one issued last month for Washington, D.C., that said gridlock would surge under the strict new regulation. That’s because the rule would make nearly all areas of the country, including pristine national parks, unable to comply, forcing the EPA to designate many cities as “non-attainment” areas.
That designation would make it harder for states to dole out federal dollars for highway projects unless improvements in air quality are made. But the U.S. chamber and a slew of other industry groups argue that no city will be able to meet the standard under the new proposal, making it increasingly likely that many towns and cities will lose their funding. The rule goes into effect Oct. 1.
The Las Vegas region of Clark County has had difficulties meeting existing ozone standards established in 2008, which require ozone levels to be 75 parts per billion. The new ozone proposal that goes into effect in October requires states to go as low as 65 parts per billion, which industry says is impossible to attain.
“During the most recent three-year period for which data are available, ozone levels in the region averaged 83 parts per billion — well above EPA’s proposed new standard,” according to the new report.
“Adding insult to injury, construction delays resulting from withheld transportation funding will only worsen traffic congestion, thereby increasing ozone-forming emissions,” said Dan Byers, senior policy director with the Institute for 21st Century Energy.
The U.S. chamber’s analysis shows that 10 projects in the region, totaling $346 million, would risk being “cut off” from federal highway funds, while also suffering from a “freeze on federal permits and approvals.”
“In addition, many other projects that have yet to be included in the region’s formal transportation plan but are planned would be at risk, such as $1.4 billion in improvements to address major congestion,” according to the Energy Institute.
