The U.S. government imposed tougher standards on smog-producing ozone in a far-reaching clampdown that will affect everything from factories to power plants, and which industry groups said will cost jobs.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tightened nationwide limits on concentrations of ground-level ozone, the main component of smog, to 70 parts per billion, from 75. The EPA’s standard falls at the weaker end of the range of 65-70 parts per billion that the agency proposed in November.
The regulation represents President Barack Obama’s second attempt to issue a national standard and marks the last major pollution measure to be completed in his administration. Obama backed off a previous EPA plan to cut ozone in 2011 amid pressure from industry groups during the run-up to elections.
The EPA, which was under a court order to issue the final standard, said the rule will reap between $2.9 billion and $5.9 billion in health benefits annually in 2025, outweighing estimated annual compliance costs of $1.4 billion. The limits will prevent 230,000 childhood asthma attacks, and up to 660 premature deaths a year in 2025, according to the agency.
‘Inflict Pain’
Industry groups had pressured the EPA to retain the old limits set in 2008 by the Bush administration. Tightening the standard to 70 parts per billion or lower will leave large parts of the country out of compliance, bringing economic activity in those areas to a halt, while yielding little improvement to public health, opponents of Obama’s plan said.
A host of air regulations on automobiles, power plants and factories already on the books will put the majority of the U.S. on a path to meeting the ozone limits by 2025 without additional action, said McCarthy. Average ozone levels have fallen by one- third since 1980, she said.
The Natural Resources Defense Council said the EPA’s failure to impose tighter standards went against the advice of its scientific advisers, which called on the agency to consider strengthening the limits to as low as 60 parts per billion.