EPA TO BEGIN NEGOTIATING TRANSBOUNDARY PM TREATY WITH CANADA

摘要

EPA and the State Department met with Canadian officials late last month to work out a first-time air quality treaty to address transboundary particulate matter (PM) pollution. The Nov. 28 meeting in Washington, D.C., marked the initiation of a process to reach a mutual agreement on an "annex" to an existing U.S.-Canadian air quality treaty to control ozone and acid rain. The earlier treaty is based on existing U.S. cap-and-trade programs to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), and an informed source says the United States is likely to focus the new negotiations on the clean air interstate rule, a new EPA mandate that requires power plants in 23 states to cut NOx and SO2 by 70 percent in order to further reduce ozone, acid rain and PM.