October 31, 2017
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) missed a legal deadline to start implementing its regulation limiting ground-level ozone to 70 parts per billion, from the previous 75 parts per billion according to an October 3, 2017 report from The Hill.
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt should have published his initial determinations on which areas of the country exceed the new, stricter standard on ozone, a component of smog that is linked to respiratory illnesses, on October 2, 2017.
But the EPA did not release any information on the initial findings. An agency spokeswoman said on October 3rd that she did not have any more information on the matter.
In his last job as Oklahoma’s attorney general, Pruitt sued to stop the 2015 regulation written under former President Barack Obama.
Pruitt tried earlier this year to delay the initial compliance findings for a year. But when environmentalists and Democratic states sued, the agency walked back and said it would meet the Oct. 1 deadline — which was on a Sunday, but pushed to Monday, October 2nd for the weekend.
“Mr. Pruitt is showing a blatant disregard for the law by refusing to give Americans a full accounting of how much unsafe smog they’re breathing. That’s irresponsible. It’s illegal,” John Walke, clean air director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. Business groups and Republican-led states want it repealed, since complying with the new standards would likely require states to reduce the burning of fossil fuels, whose emissions create ozone.
The Oct. 1 date is two years from the day that the Obama administration finalized the original rule.
What this means to you
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) missed a legal deadline to start implementing its regulation limiting ground-level ozone to 70 parts per billion, from the previous 75 parts per billion. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt should have published his initial determinations on October 2, 2017.
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