Against the urging of ACA and other industry groups, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on July 11 sent its reconsideration of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for Ozone to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, motioning its commitment to moving forward with tightened air standards for ground level ozone. EPA will likely issue the final standard in August.
EPA is seeking to reduce the current air standard of 75 parts per billion (ppb) to a level between 60 ppb and 70 ppb. This reduction, just a couple years after the 2008 standard was set, will be extremely costly for manufacturers. Weeks earlier, ACA sent a letter to Administrator Jackson maintaining that EPA's proposal to issue a new primary ozone standard is premature, coming just three years after the agency's last review in 2008, and strays from the Clean Air Act's five-year NAAQS review process. ACA underscored that lowering the primary ozone standard now would have a negative impact on states, municipalities, and industries that are already striving to meet the existing ozone standard. Instead, ACA urged EPA to retain the existing primary ozone standard and consider merging the current reconsideration into the ongoing five-year review process set for 2013, which would allow for adequate stakeholder involvement in the process and grant EPA the time to conduct a thorough review of the ozone standard. Read on at paint.org
EPA is seeking to reduce the current air standard of 75 parts per billion (ppb) to a level between 60 ppb and 70 ppb. This reduction, just a couple years after the 2008 standard was set, will be extremely costly for manufacturers. Weeks earlier, ACA sent a letter to Administrator Jackson maintaining that EPA's proposal to issue a new primary ozone standard is premature, coming just three years after the agency's last review in 2008, and strays from the Clean Air Act's five-year NAAQS review process. ACA underscored that lowering the primary ozone standard now would have a negative impact on states, municipalities, and industries that are already striving to meet the existing ozone standard. Instead, ACA urged EPA to retain the existing primary ozone standard and consider merging the current reconsideration into the ongoing five-year review process set for 2013, which would allow for adequate stakeholder involvement in the process and grant EPA the time to conduct a thorough review of the ozone standard. Read on at paint.org
