Scrutinizing EPAs approach to clean air

Scrutinizing EPAs approach to clean air





    
January 2007  - When the new Congress 
convenes on January 4, the Senate Committee on Environment and 
Public Works will "scrutinize" the EPA’s approach to clean air 
"to ensure that the health of our families is protected," says 
Senator Barbara Boxer of California, a Democrat who will chair 
the committee. 
Commenting on last month's decision by the DC Court of Appeals 
to reject the U.S. EPA’s 2004 smog rule, Boxer said, “I am 
pleased that the Court of Appeals has seen through EPA’s 
transparent attempts to weaken implementation of the Clean Air 
Act’s rules for smog. This unanimous opinion from the Court of 
Appeals confirms that EPA’s approach is illegal. EPA must now 
throw out this rule and start anew." 
Rush hour traffic in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which has not 
attained the federal clean air standard.  

The three judge panel ruled on December 22, 2006 that some of 
the EPA's ozone requirements are too weak to conform with the 
Clean Air Act, and that the agency has been illegally 
exercising its discretion contrary to the intent of Congress. 
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by seven state 
governments, the District of Columbia, environmental groups, 
and California's South Coast Air Quality Management District. 
"Because of the efforts of the South Coast Air Quality 
Management District, which brought this case, our citizens 
will not be forced to accept EPA’s plans to relax the smog 
rules," Boxer said. "Smog kills people, it increases asthma 
and other respiratory illnesses, and it remains a major public 
health threat in many areas of the country." 
Barbara Boxer was seated in the U.S. Senate in January 1993 
after 10 years in the House of Representatives. (Photo 
courtesy Office of the Senator) 
The day before the appeals court ruling was handed down, Boxer 
and six other Democratic members of the committee wrote to 
U.S. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson opposing the agency's 
recent changes in the approach to setting the health-based 
standards under the Clean Air Act. 
For decades, under both Democratic and Republican 
administrations, the senators wrote, the EPA set clean air 
standards by soliciting expert advice from leading independent 
scientists, and developing scientific analyses in consultation 
with independent experts on the Clean Air Science Advisory 
Committee, CASAC. 
"Now, apparently relying upon recommendations from the 
American Petroleum Institute," the senators wrote, "the agency 
has taken a dangerous turn. Instead of objectively basing 
standards on the CASAC review, EPA scientists’ staff paper, 
and the best available science, EPA’s new approach will inject 
politics into the entire decision-making process." 
Stephen Johnson was appointed EPA administrator in May 2005 
after more than 20 years with the agency in other roles. 
(Photo courtesy Office of the Administrator) 
"EPA political appointees and, potentially White House staff, 
will play a crucial early role in shaping the scientific 
record and technical review," the senators wrote. "CASAC’s 
expert scientific analysis will now be put on a par with that 
of special interest advocates." 
"We ask that you abandon these changes and provide us with a 
detailed explanation prior to making any alterations to the 
longstanding process," wrote the senators. 
Administrator Johnson has not issued a response to the 
senators' letter. 
The committee was chaired in the previous Congress by 
Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma. In September, Inhofe 
introduced amendments to the Clean Air Act that would have 
strengthened penalties on major emission sources in the most 
polluted areas of the country that fail to meet clean air 
standards by the attainment deadlines. 
The Inhofe amendments would have applied to areas that have 
not attained the EPA standards both for small particulates and 
for ground level ozone. 
But the Inhofe amendments were not enacted, and now the 
appeals court has ordered the EPA to rewrite the entire smog 
rule.