America's Smoggiest Cities (Dirtiest and Cleanest Cities)

CNNMoney.com ^ | May 1, 2007 | Les Christie

[fight_truth_decay]

Los Angeles ranks as the smoggiest city in the United States, according to an annual report card released Tuesday by the American Lung Association. It leads the nation in all three major air pollution categories, short-term particle pollution, year-round particle pollution and ozone pollution.

[fight_truth_decay]

Fresno Bee File

The Los Angeles area is said to have "one of the most remarkable engineering achievements of mankind - colossal in scale, intricate, elaborate, and beautiful system of freeways. These freeways, mostly constructed in the 1950's and 1960's coupled with the mass production of the automobile, providing millions with convient, economical, and speedy travel for the times.

What has happened since then?

Lobbying by environmentalists have prevented new freeways from being constructed in the past 30 years (SAVE THE TREES) even though freeway usage has been recorded as doubled within that timeframe. These Environmentalist groups, such as the Sierra Club, have participated in litigation delaying the extension of the 710 freeway into Pasadena, linking it to the 210. The Sierra Club cited among its' concerns: the destruction of "mature trees" along the proposed path.

Proposed freeways, including the Reseda Freeway, 118 freeway from Oxnard to San Fernando, Fillmore Freeway, were cancelled during construction. Billions of dollars annually wasted on the underutilized and heavily subsidized mass transit system largely by environmentalists and Ex-Governor Grey Davis. Davis had pronounced: "California's era of freeway construction is over," in spite of the fact that the driving habits of Californians and their "car(s)", a definite status symbol, have not had them giving up the freedom and privacy of their cars, trucks and SUVs.

Southern Californians spend more time stuck in traffic – than other drivers in the United States--said to be an average of 96 hours annually.

With 10 million motorists roaming Southern California's 30-yr old engineered highways, gridlock aka traffic congestion has resulted, doubled levels of nitrous oxide, carbon contaminants aka smog and even more gas consumption while sitting there stuck in idle.

Environmentalists and politicians are no longer "pinging" as much with the "green" word, but instead the more hip "GW" tag words. The California Clean Cars Campaign, a project of the state's leading health, environmental and public interest groups, is working to defend California's vehicle "global warming" pollution standards.

[tubebender]

Ping...

[fight_truth_decay]

annual report card released Tuesday by the American Lung Association

Could not what was described as a 2007 "annual report" card but the Latest Press Statement in support of the : Clean Air Planning Act of 2007 and misc.

[weegee]

Remember when they redefined the standards (which have since been set back) so that Houston (a “George Bush’s Texas” city) would be #1 in 2000?

[fight_truth_decay]

find

[highlander_UW]

It looks like the worst pollution areas are democratic ones...so we can conclude that democrats create pollution.

[doug from upland]

I’m not a scientist, so I will rely on a FReeper expert. Would I be correct in assuming that if 5 million illegals went back to their country, the air would be cleaner? Would it be easier to drive on the freeway? Would I have a better chance of hearing English spoken in my native country?

[HungarianGypsy]

Considering how the federal government gets on the city of Phoenix for dust particulates (yes, we live in a desert, folks, and have too much dust), you’d think we were in the top five of dirty cities.

[higgmeister]

Birmingham, Ala, “The Pittsburgh of the South”, has cleaned up a lot in the last sixty years. My mother said that when she was a girl in high school, she could walk outside and taste the air.

[higgmeister]

I was looking for the list also, but haven’t found it yet!

[Westlander]

Detroit is on the list due to gun smoke.

[AZLiberty]

25 Worst Counties for Particulates

25 Worst Counties for Ozone

Clickable Map of States

[AZLiberty]

Correction (they don't seem to rank the 25 worst):

Worst Counties for Particulates in each State

Worst Counties for Ozone in Each State

Clickable Map of States

[AZLiberty]

The Phoenix pollution must be getting to me. Here are the worst 25 in each category:

25 Worst Cities for Short-Term Particulates

25 Worst Cities for Year-Round Particulates

25 Worst Cities for Ozone

All the Lists

[stephenjohnbanker]

“I’m not a scientist, so I will rely on a FReeper expert. Would I be correct in assuming that if 5 million illegals went back to their country, the air would be cleaner? Would it be easier to drive on the freeway? Would I have a better chance of hearing English spoken in my native country?”

Damned accurate!!!!

[Names Ash Housewares]

Maybe its the worst. But its way better then it was and there are a lot more cars.

[AlaskaErik]

Southern Californians spend more time stuck in traffic – than other drivers in the United States--said to be an average of 96 hours annually.

This number seems ridiculously low. If you're stuck in freeway traffic two hours a day, that would amount to over 500 hours a year. And that's just for commuting five days a week.

[Allegra]

It looks like the worst pollution areas are democratic ones...so we can conclude that democrats create pollution.

Every time they open their mouths...

[Tamar1973]

It looks like the worst pollution areas are democratic ones...so we can conclude that democrats create pollution.

Especially when they refuse to take a bath!

[Yaelle]

WE’RE NUMBER ONE! WE’RE NUMBER ONE! [COUGH] WE’RE NUMBER ONE!