Reviving OMB Attacks, Activists Cite EPA Cuts To NO2 Monitoring Plans

摘要

Environmentalists are reviving long-running activist criticisms of White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) interference aimed at weakening EPA rules, claiming OMB officials pushed EPA to scale back its first-time requirements for installing roadway monitors in its recently issued nitrogen dioxide (NO2) air standard.rnThe activist group OMB Watch Jan. 28 circulated an e-mail exchange between EPA and officials in OMB's Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) that they say "suggests a certain level of coercion" by OIRA to push EPA into accepting a less-stringent threshold for triggering the installation of near-road NO2 monitors for the agency's recent final revisions to EPA's NO2 air standard.