New Limit for Smog-Causing Emissions Not as Strict as Many Had Expected

"The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled a major new regulation on smog-causing emissions that spew from smokestacks and tailpipes, significantly tightening the current Bush-era standards but falling short of more stringent regulations that public health advocates and environmentalists had urged.

The Environmental Protection Agency set the new national standard for ozone, a smog-causing gas that often forms on hot, sunny days when chemical emissions from power plants, factories and vehicles mix in the air, at 70 parts per billion, tightening the standard of 75 parts per billion set in 2008. Smog has been linked to asthma, heart and lung disease, and premature death.

The smog rule is the latest in a string of major new Clean Air Act pollution regulations that have become a hallmark of the Obama administration. Republicans and the coal industry have attacked the rules as job-killing regulatory overreach. In August, the E.P.A. proposed climate change regulations aimed at greenhouse gas pollution, which could shutter hundreds of coal-fired power plants. But with the new ozone rule, the Obama administration appears to have tempered its environmental ambitions and sought a politically pragmatic outcome that would sit better with business."

Coral Davenport reports for the New York Times October 1, 2015.

SEE ALSO:

"U.S. To Curb Smog But Stops Short of Toughest Limits" (Reuters)

"Obama Administration Tightens Smog Limits But Satisfies Few" (Washington Post)

"Obama Administration Updates Smog Standard, Disappointing Both Right And Left" (McClatchy)