Less than six weeks after George W. Bush left office, clean-air advocates are wasting no time under the new administration to push for new and tougher regulations.
Several of the former president's air-pollution policies already are in jeopardy, raising hopes among clean-air advocates and fears among those who worry that industries could get hit with higher costs during a recession.
Frank O'Donnell, president of the Washington-based Clean Air Watch, described the Obama administration as "literally a breath of fresh air." During the Bush years, he said, "instead of science, we got stealth and spin."
Millions of Americans still breathe air that makes people sick and shortens their lives, O'Donnell added.
This week, a federal court ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has to redo its 2006 health standard for diesel soot and other fine-particle pollution. The court found that the Bush administration had not adequately taken into account studies that linked such pollution to reduced lung function in children and heart attacks, cancer and early deaths in adults and other health problems.
The Obama administration also is re-evaluating Bush-era changes that make it easier for factories to expand without installing the best available pollution controls.
And, while not a policy change, the stimulus package Obama signed this month includes $300 million for an obscure EPA diesel-pollution-reduction program -- a six-fold funding increase for the program.
President Obama's administration has agreed to consider granting California a Clean Air Act waiver the state needs to limit greenhouse-gas emissions from cars, trucks and other vehicles. The Bush administration denied the waiver last year, saying new federal fuel-economy standards made it unnecessary. The new administration is now taking public comment on the waiver and is expected to hold a hearing on it next week.
Janice Nolen, an assistant vice president for the American Lung Association, and several other health advocates have called on Congress and the Obama administration to clean up the nation's air.
Nolen said the Lung Association and other groups will seek a tougher health standard for ozone, the lung-irritating gas prevalent in summer smog season. They will lobby for rules to clean up oceangoing ships and coal-fired power plants, an improved system to measure and monitor air pollution, and diligent enforcement of the Clean Air Act, she said.
"The benefit will far outweigh the cost, mostly in saving from health-care costs," Nolen said.
"In the last eight years we have been just treading water on air-quality issues, and now we are moving forward," said Barry Wallerstein, executive officer with the South Coast Air Quality Management District, based in Diamond Bar, Calif.
Frank Maisano, an energy specialist, said individual air-quality measures might sound like a good idea, but could hurt efforts to bring the country out of the recession. The costs to industry ultimately will be paid by consumers, he added.
"In an economic downturn, we are already pressed," he said. "Putting additional costs on things that everyone needs, like electricity and gasoline, is probably not the best timing. When you seek all of these regulations at once, the burden is even greater."
He added that the court decision on the fine-particle pollution did not rescind the existing health standard.
Stricter health standards would just put more of the country out of compliance with federal clean-air goals, giving many communities "a scarlet letter" that would make it more difficult for them to attract business, Maisano said.
"It is going to be very expensive," he said.
But Bill Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, said the Bush administration erred in setting the fine-particle health standard by ignoring the advice of an EPA science advisory panel. The scientists, who spent more than a year reviewing hundreds of health studies, recommended a more stringent standard. Cutting pollution to the levels recommended by the scientists would save thousand of lives each year, Becker said.
The South Coast air district, like other regional agencies, does not have jurisdiction over ships, trains and most trucks. The district is seeking tougher federal rules on ship pollution, funds to help truckers and equipment operators cut diesel emissions, and the California waiver, which would help cut smog.
(E-mail David Danelski at ddanelski(at)PE.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.
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