EPA says 21 counties in nine states now meet new air-quality standards

[Algorem]

By MALIA RULON
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that 21 counties in nine states, including Alabama, are being removed from the government's watch list of areas in the country with the dirtiest air.

The government had identified 225 counties in 20 states that were either unclassified or not meeting its new clean-air standards for reducing the amount of microscopic soot in the air, putting those areas on notice that they must devise a pollution-reduction plan.

Failure to comply could mean a county will have to limit development and its state could lose federal highway dollars.

Since those designations had been made in December with 2003 data, Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change and Nuclear Safety, asked the EPA to review its list based on 2004 information...

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/washington/index.ssf?/base/washington-0/1112747549301170.xml&storylist=washington

[gristy]

1. what a piece of propaganda shit

Any wonder why there were no ADDITIONS to the list??

Since those designations had been made in December with 2003 data, Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change and Nuclear Safety, asked the EPA to review its list based on 2004 information.

The agency said the review indicated that certain areas now have air that is free of dangerous levels of soot, which comes from power plants, car exhaust, diesel-burning trucks, wood-burning stoves and other sources.

About 5 million people live in these areas and now benefit from cleaner air, the agency said. Soot can penetrate deeply into the lungs, causing respiratory illnesses and heart disease.

EPA's decision also is considered a boon for local officials working to attract development and jobs to their areas.

"These counties will be able to enjoy the benefit of these improvements, both in terms of improved public health and in terms of greater job-creation potential," said Voinovich, who referred to the designations as "economy-strangling limits."

The states with counties now in compliance with the clean-air rules for soot are Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and California.

[Dave Reynolds]

2. Is that before or after

the "Clean Air" initiative?

[gristy]

3. Do you mean the "clear skys initiative"?

http://healthandenergy.com/bush_and_clear_skys.htm (Molly Ivens)

[gristy]

4. Is that a wierd looking word or what?

skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys
skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys
skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys
skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys
skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys skys

sorry, off-topic.... :freak:

[Dave Reynolds]

5. Yep, that one.

Could not remember the name to save my life.

[Zorra]

6. An EPA "Review"? Does this mean that they went over old paperwork,

fudged it, and stamped "approved" on it, without even re-testing the air in these communities?

I guess maybe I'm just overly skeptical when it comes to the EPA and "Bush Science".

[jdj]

7. I think it's republican for "we lowered the standards...

and, presto changeo, suddenly more places meet the standards."

all it takes is a little "review".

[bloom]

8. When they "delist" mercury as a hazardous substance in Air Pollution...

And ignore their own study that they commissioned which showed how much mercury adversely affects health (which was before the study linking mercury to autism - so it is actually much worse and they knew this when they delisted it)... when they change the rules that would have reduced mercury pollution from coal-fired plants (rules that were in the Clean Air Act) by 90% by 2008 and replace them with rules allowing companies to cap and trade and get out of regulation and pollute and put more mercury into the air - and maybe have some limit by 2026... I guess so.