Republicans don’t like the Obama administration’s proposed smog standard. But they haven’t figured out how to prevent it from tightening limits on ozone, the pollutant that interacts with sunlight to form smog.
The Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee on Wednesday previewed three bills that would delay or handcuff the smog standards. The panel, however, hasn’t committed to pursuing any one bill or whether to do so as a standalone measure. And even if it did, the chances of passing legislation by the Environmental Protection Agency’s court-imposed Oct. 1 deadline to finalize the standard are slim.
Meanwhile, committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and top Democrat Barbara Boxer of California are working on broad transportation legislation that could touch on smog, a good chunk of which is produced by vehicle emissions. That could yield an opportunity for an amendment on ozone, but Inhofe has said he wants to maintain bipartisanship for the transportation bill, and an ozone amendment probably would thwart that effort.
So rather than detail a plan of attack, Wednesday’s hearing hashed out familiar arguments regarding smog, a pollutant that has been linked to heart disease, asthma and other respiratory ailments.
The EPA is taking comment on whether to ratchet down the limit to 65 or 70 parts per billion of ozone in the atmosphere, from the current 75. The agency also is taking comment on whether to set the limit at 60 ppb, which its independent science advisers said would offer the most health benefits.
“The science has advanced. Our interpretation of the science has advanced at a much faster pace than the regulation,” said Gregory Diette, a professor of medicine, epidemiology and environmental health science at Johns Hopkins University.
But conservatives and businesses fear the more stringent levels would choke the economy.
They point to an oft-cited National Association of Manufacturers study that showed a 65 ppb-level would cost the economy $140 billion annually (the study did not mention any potential benefits). That’s because companies in counties that didn’t meet the standard would endure hurdles in securing permits to expand factories and other industrial facilities. The EPA also could revoke federal highway funds for prolonged “non-attainment.”
“When businesses are restrained by regulatory overreach, they can’t expand, they can’t add jobs and innovation is stifled,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who is sponsoring legislation to halt implementation of a new standard until 85 percent of counties have met the old one rolled out in 2008.
The EPA is required to review ozone standards every five years. It doesn’t have to adjust the limit, but usually does. President Obama, however, yanked the EPA’s last proposal before his re-election bid in 2011 after pressure from industry groups. The agency’s failure to submit a new standard drew a lawsuit from environmental groups, and a federal court ruled the EPA needed to submit a new proposal.
The EPA contends the tighter standard would produce up to $38 billion of health benefits in 2025, with a 65 ppb standard costing $15 billion.
The standards are the subject of intense lobbying. The oil and gas industry has made ozone its top priority this year — the American Petroleum Institute last month launched what they called a “significant” advertising campaign on TV, print, radio and the Internet. The American Lung Association, which wants a tighter ozone limit, announced a new online ad push on Tuesday.
Regions with high amounts of vehicle traffic would be especially hard hit by stricter standards, said Kanathur Srikanth, director of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Srikanth said projects in the Washington area might be put on hold for 20 years under a tighter standard because it wouldn’t be able to meet the new standard and could lose federal funding.
That doesn’t mean the standard is unrealistic, Srikanth said. But the federal government might need to help more densely populated areas.
“The federal assistance will be very critical, especially with this region,” Srikanth said. “Increased transportation funding that helps reduce emissions is always welcomed.”
But Inhofe contended it’s not just urban areas that would be hard hit. He noted all 77 of Oklahoma’s counties comply with the current ozone standard, but none would at 65 ppb.
There isn’t much money to help counties that suddenly run afoul of the standard, said Gary Moore, the judge-executive of suburban Boone County, Ky., who also is president of the National Association of Regional Counties.
“Very little funding is available to help these counties,” Moore said at the hearing.
He said counties need more time to comply with the current limit, let alone a stricter cap. With effort, his county, which has doubled in population since 1990, is now in “moderate attainment.” But Moore said he just received implementation guidelines for the 2008 standard in February.
Some counties violate the standards through no wrongdoing of their own, noted Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. Many New England and East Coast states inhale the industrial pollution that blows from Midwestern states.
“I don’t see how that’s fair. And I don’t see how in the world Kentucky is going to pay attention to that problem when the harm is in Rhode Island,” Whitehouse said.
