Strict On Smog...Really?

Smog is formed by a reaction of nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide and methane in the presence of sunlight. The main sources of these pollutants are power plants and factories, fumes from volatile solvents, vehicles emissions and gasoline vapors. Smog is worse in the summer because of heat and sunlight, and can travel hundreds of miles from its source to pollute wilderness areas. Now the amount permitted each year to be in the air will be constrained, or at least that is what the EPA wants.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed stricter health standards for smog, replacing a Bush-era limit that ran counter to scientific recommendations. The new standard will likely put hundreds more counties nationwide in violation, costing tens of billions of dollars to implement, but will ultimately save billions in avoided emergency room visits, premature deaths, and missed work days, the EPA said. If the strictest standard is adopted, agency analysts project that as many as 12,000 premature deaths from heart or lung diseases could be avoided, along with thousands of cases of bronchitis, asthma and non-fatal heart attacks.

While smog has been a long-term problem in parts of Texas, California, and along the northeast Coast, the new standards could affect counties in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, the Dakotas, Kansas, Minnesota and Iowa for the first time based on EPA data.

The EPA proposal presents a range for the allowable concentration of ground-level ozone, the main ingredient in smog, from 60 parts per billion to 70 parts per billion. EPA will select a specific figure within that range. The costs will increase from $19 billion up to $90 billion a year by 2020, according to EPA. Counties and states will have up to 20 years to meet the new limits, depending on how severely they are out of compliance. They will have to submit plans for meeting the new limits by end of 2013 or early 2014.

The proposed range was what scientists had recommended during the Bush administration. However, President Bush personally intervened and set the standard well below what was advised after protests from electric utilities and other industries. Despite the cutback, the Bush standard was still stricter than the previous smog standard set in 1997, but not anything comparable to what the recommendations advised.

The American Petroleum Institute, the oil companies’ chief lobby, criticized the proposal as costly and likely to be ineffective. The group said that there was no new scientific basis for changing the standard set at the end of the Bush administration and will likely fight the proposal.