Remove Clean Air Act Remove Government Remove Ozone
article thumbnail

EPA Will Reconsider the Ozone NAAQS — What Is An Adequate Margin of Safety, Anyway?

Law and Environment

On Friday, EPA announced that it was reconsidering its 2020 decision to leave the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone unchanged. However, EPA stated that it: will reconsider the decision to retain the ozone NAAQS in a manner that adheres to rigorous standards of scientific integrity.

Ozone 130
article thumbnail

State Air Regulations Can Go Above and Beyond National Standards 

Legal Planet

States and local air quality regulators have the legal authority to set particulate matter (PM), ozone, and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions standards and adopt regulations for these pollutants when they are already in attainment of the national ambient air quality standards ( NAAQS ) set by the U.S.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Why UCS Supporters Are Pressing EPA to Let California Enforce Its Truck Pollution Rules

Union of Concerned Scientists

California has a longstanding leadership role on transportation pollution, and the Clean Air Act grants the state the right to set strong vehicle emissions standards. As a person in SoCal with asthma, cleaner air is especially important. We in Colorado have many days of problematic ozone. California. Washington.

article thumbnail

Protecting Public Health Is Complicated. But Science Can Help, and the Time Is Now.

Union of Concerned Scientists

However, since major US environmental laws are enacted to protect the air, water, and land separately (i.e. the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act), as a result, EPA programs are often implemented narrowly, not holistically.

article thumbnail

Supreme Court Sidelines Science, Threatens Public Health: These Rules-in-Progress Show What’s at Stake

Union of Concerned Scientists

If governments bypass or undermine science and public comments in policy making, our health could be in jeopardy from increased pollution, cases of foodborne illnesses, politically-driven medicine approvals or disapprovals, and more. This is a major federal law that governs if a chemical will be regulated, limited, or even banned.

article thumbnail

The Supreme Court & Interstate Pollution

Legal Planet

It then disapproved plans that had been submitted by state governments much earlier and issued its own plan covering sources in 23 upwind states. The Court’s Ruling Justice Gorsuch, a fierce skeptic of government regulation, wrote the opinion for the Court. It shows her willingness to take EPA’s arguments seriously.

article thumbnail

Minnesota Can Do More to Protect People from Ethylene Oxide Emissions

Union of Concerned Scientists

While the agency has failed to update the rule as required under the Clean Air Act, last year, EPA identified 23 “elevated cancer risk” commercial sterilizers and is currently working to inform communities and work with state regulators and the facilities to decrease emissions. What can be done?

2016 245