The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a proposed new standard for ozone, the pollutant that causes smog. The proposal would lower the current standard of 75 parts per billion to a standard in the range of 65-70 parts per billion, while taking public comment on a level as low as 60. According to the EPA analysis, “strengthening the standard to a range of 65 to 70 ppb will provide significantly better protection for children, preventing from 320,000 to 960,000 asthma attacks and from 330,000 to 1 million missed school days. Strengthening the standard to a range of 70 to 65 ppb would better protect both children and adults by preventing more than 750 to 4,300 premature deaths; 1,400 to 4,300 asthma-related emergency room visits; and 65,000 to 180,000 missed workdays.”
Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) said the following.
“Scientific evidence supports a lower standard for ozone than we currently have and as a country, we need to ensure that we have clean air to breathe. As someone who has been in the public health field, I am keenly sensitive to the problem poor air quality can have on the health of our citizens, especially the young and the infirm. Air quality-related illnesses have very real and destructive effects on the economy – on the order of hundreds of billions of dollars annually - and the benefits for reducing those effects will be seen throughout the country. As someone from Texas, I am acutely aware that this is a very complex and contentious regulatory issue. However, I want to point out that for almost every major environmental action we have heard from opponents that it will decimate the American industrial base and result in irreparable economic disruption, only to see the power of American innovation quickly leave these cynics and pessimists in the dust. In fact, there is much more evidence showing that jobs are created and the economy expands following the passage of major reforms. For example, the U.S. economy grew by 64 percent in the years following passage of the Clean Air Act. I also want to emphasize that the Clean Air Act provides states with time to meet the standards. Depending on the severity of their ozone problem, areas would have between 2020 and 2037 to meet the standards. I look forward to working with the Administration and the public to guarantee we have a healthy environment and a healthy economy for years to come.”
