Posted on 12/05/2003 1:26:25 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed designating all of New Jersey and Connecticut as being out of compliance with tougher anti-smog standards adopted several years ago. It also classified the rapidly growing counties west and north of New York City in such a way that could bring tougher emissions controls to these areas. The E.P.A. plan is the culmination of a highly charged debate over whether more rural and suburban areas should be lumped with the city in facing strict emissions rules meant to reduce smog in the region. For example, New York State environmental officials wanted Orange, Putnam and Dutchess Counties considered a separate zone for purposes of meeting the stricter anti-smog standards. But the federal government lumped the counties with the New York City zone, meaning that the stricter and costlier controls on industry, gas pumps and cars that are in place for New York City could be required for those counties. None of the new requirements are imminent. In some cases, counties will have as many as seven years to comply, and the new rules may also be delayed by litigation. The E.P.A. proposal follows separate, and somewhat conflicting, plans issued this year by the states in the region. The federal and various state proposals must be reconciled by mid-April under a settlement reached in a lawsuit over the delayed enforcement of the clean-air rules. The suit was filed by the American Lung Association and environmental groups. The new standards are intended to combat ozone, which causes smog, by reducing emissions like automobile exhaust. Ozone at ground level can worsen and may cause respiratory problems. Although there is little question about the need to combat smog in the region, there is ample debate about which areas should come under stricter standards. New Jersey officials, for instance, had argued against the way their state was divided between the New York and Philadelphia zones, which left Ocean County lumped with New York City. The state believes that the area belongs with the Philadelphia zone, where the standards for combating the problem are different. But Bradley M. Campbell, the New Jersey environmental commissioner, focused his sharpest criticism on the Bush administration's release of clean-air rules on Thursday. Those rules, he said, increase the amount of pollution carried into the state on the wind from coal-fired power plants to the west. The state says a third of its air pollution comes from out-of-state sources. "The nonattainment designations are not a surprise since they are based on the stricter health standards that were issued during the Clinton administration," Mr. Campbell, a Democrat, said. "But what is stunning is that on the same day the E.P.A. acknowledges that New Jersey can't meet those standards, it also announces proposals that would ensure that we can't meet those standards for a generation." Mike Fraser, a spokesman for the New York State environmental commissioner, Erin M. Crotty, said his agency disagreed only with the way the nonattainment map was drawn. Connecticut officials had no argument with the way the E.P.A. drew their state's two nonattainment zones, putting Fairfield, Middlesex and New Haven Counties in the New York City zone and the five other counties in a single zone. Mr. Campbell said on Thursday that New Jersey might sue the agency, as the state has in the past, to force stricter standards on pollution that wafts in on westerly winds. Under the new standards, a county is deemed out of compliance if more than 85 parts per billion of ozone is detected over an eight-hour period. Previously, the violation was reached when 125 parts per billion was detected after an hour of testing.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.
Your honor, I present this as Exhibit "1" as to why current environmental legislation and regulation is lunacy.
Don't forget the blame that those racist Southern states deserve, what with their dirty power plants and pickup tucks blowing pollution over the pristine, environmentally conscious Northeast. Who said those toothless yahoos down there deserve electricity anyway?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.