Earth Equity News

U.S. EPA Plans to Tighten Bush-Era Smog Limits. By Timothy Gardner, Reuters, January 7, 2010. "The EPA has proposed a new standard to limit smog between 60 and 70 parts per billion measured over eight hours -- a move that would hit coal plants, ships and locomotives hardest. U.S. environmental regulators on Thursday proposed tougher limits on smog than the Bush administration required, which would cost polluters up to $90 billion but save Americans a similar amount on health bills. Industry groups blasted the proposal, which will undergo 60 days of public comment before a final decision is reached in August. But the move won praise from environmental groups who had criticized the Bush administration for setting smog standards in 2008 that were looser than government scientists had recommended. The Environmental Protection Agency proposed to limit ground-level ozone, or smog, to between 60 and 70 parts per billion measured over eight hours. In 2008 the EPA set the level at 75 ppb. The tighter standards would require factories and oil, gas and power companies to cut emissions of nitrogen oxides and other chemicals called volatile organic compounds. Smog forms when those react with sunlight. 'Coal-burning power plants are the 800-pound gorilla in the room, John Walke, a clean air lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said about the industry that could get hit hardest."