EPA Proposes Stricter Smog Standards

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed lowering limits for smog set during the Bush administration, a move the New York Times reports would cost manufacturers, oil refiners and utilities billions of dollars. The new standard would lower ground-level ozone limit from 0.075 parts per million to 0.070 and then to 0.060 parts per million over the next 20 years. Heavy smog areas, like most of California, Chicago, and Houston, would be given longer to adopt the new limits.

The Bush administration standard has been challenged in court as too weak to protect public health. The previous standard was 0.084 parts per million, set by the Clinton administration in 1997.

If the limit is lowered to 0.070 parts per million, 515 of the 675 counties that measure ozone levels would be out of compliance. Over 50 percent of the 675 counties that measure ozone levels are already out of compliance with the current limit, meaning many counties nationwide will be forced to take expensive steps to meet the new mandate. Local authorities will be required to take measures to limit emissions from smokestacks, tailpipes and manufacturing plants.

The new regulations could cost industry $19 billion to $90 billion a year by 2020, but the EPA says the costs would be offset by benefits to public health, which it valued at $13 billion to $100 billion per year over the same period.