The Battle Over Smog Is Heating Up (Again)

[riversedge]

Source: buzz feed


Environmental groups were thrilled this week to see the EPA suddenly get back on track to enforce ozone regulations. But a bill that would loosen the rules could make smog a health problem again.

Posted on August 6, 2017, at 8:35 a.m.




..................

........................................

Dubbed the “Smoggy Skies Act” by its detractors, bill H.R 806 passed in the House of Representatives in July. (A date has not been set for consideration in the Senate.)

The bill moves the deadline for implementing the 2015 ozone standard from 2017 to 2025 — even farther than Pruitt’s proposed delay. The EPA now reviews its standards for air pollutants every five years, but the bill extends that period to 10 years. Finally, it prevents any review of ozone levels until 2025.

“We ought to be using the latest science to set law,” Thurston said. “It’s just not justified by science and health and good policy. It doesn’t serve the American people to delay progress.”

“I think people should be screaming about this,” said Diette, the lung doctor at Johns Hopkins. “It’s unconscionable to have lawmakers sitting on their hands and caving in to lobbying pressure to delay a rule that’s well grounded in science. It’s obscene, really.”.............................

Read more: https://www.buzzfeed.com/nidhisubbaraman/battle-over-ozone-smog-rules?utm_term=.exO2dy1E0#.vjZbJyVAQ

---

Good lord. Ryan passed another bill detrimental to the health of Americans! damn.






?downsize=1040 &output-format=auto&output-quality=auto

[Doug the Dem]

1. Smog is a Chinese Hoax

Plain and Simple.

[procon]

2. California has worked long and hard to clean up smog.

I don't want to see us go backwards to the bad old days when people had to stay indoors and the air was unsafe for kids to breathe. Millions of residents should not be forced to risk their health so that some companies can avoid taking responsibility for polluting the environment and enrich themselves.

My respiratory problems forced me to move out of Los Angeles in the early 70s, but the smog followed, blowing through the windy passes to creep into the valley. I moved twice more over the years trying to escape the stench of pollution. It took a decade or more before the stricter laws finally kicked in and I could breath without coughing.

The world cannot survive this profits over people strategy.

[Kablooie]

3. When I was a kid in Pasadena, the mountains 4 miles away were not visible most days.

It looked a lot like the pictures you see of Beijing today.

Now there's never a day that the mountains aren't clearly visible from the same location.

[melm00se]

4. Air Quality Trending data

http://www.aqmd.gov/home/library/air-quality-data-studies/historic-ozone-air-quality-trends