State joins suit against Environmental Protection Agency on weak air standards

HARRISBURG — Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty on Friday announced that Pennsylvania has joined a coalition of states and cities, including New York and California, in lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for adopting air pollution standards that do not protect public health and the environment, but lead to greater levels of smog. In March, the EPA acted against the specific recommendations of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee—the agency’s independent science advisors—and adopted two new, substantially weaker standards for regulating ground-level ozone pollution, commonly referred to as smog. “The EPA and the Bush administration have again chosen politics over science, adopting air pollution standards that are not as strong as they could be, and are less protective of the public’s health and the environment,” said McGinty. “It is unfortunate that states need to petition the courts to force EPA to carry out its mission to protect American citizens and the quality of the air we breathe.” The federal Clean Air Act requires EPA to regularly review and update primary and secondary national ambient air quality standards every five years. The primary standard defines the maximum amount of smog concentrations that can be in the atmosphere before causing public health harms such as chronic lung disease, asthma attacks and premature death in some cases. The primary standard must provide an adequate margin of safety, as the science advisors’ recommended standard did. The secondary standard defines the smog concentrations that can be in the atmosphere before damaging public welfare by reducing crop productivity and harming plants and animals. On May 20, during a congressional hearing on EPA’s new eight-hour ozone standards, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee revealed that the agency yielded to pressure from White House officials to ignore the recommendations of the agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and adopted a weaker secondary air pollution standard. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and it asks the court to order EPA to adopt more stringent standards. Pennsylvania is joined in the lawsuit by California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, New York City, and the District of Columbia. Pennsylvania and other states must monitor the air for ozone and other pollutants including fine particulates, and take steps to meet the federal standards. Under the leadership of Governor Edward G. Rendell, 25 of the 37 Pennsylvania counties that did not meet EPA’s eight-hour ozone standards in June 2004 now meet current standards as a result of vigorous efforts to reduce harmful emissions from electric power plants, vehicles, industry and consumer products. For more information, visit www.depweb.state.pa.us, keyword: ozone.