Defending Ozone NAAQS, Coastal States Downplay 'Background' Problems

摘要

Northeastern states and California are defending EPA's decision to tighten its ozone air standard by downplaying concerns raised by critics that naturally-occurring and foreign-sourced "background" ozone levels will make the standard impossible to achieve, while also backing the agency for not considering costs in revising the standard. In a joint amicus brief filed Aug. 12 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Murray Energy Corporation v. EPA, California, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont, plus the District of Columbia, say EPA's Oct. 1 National Ambient Air Quality Standards rule (NAAQS) is legally sound. EPA set the limit at 70 parts per billion (ppb), stricter than the former level of 75 ppb set in 2008.