Posted by Ed on July 3, 2007, 12:23 am The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to move the goalposts in air-quality standards again in an attempt to make the nation’s cities cleaner than many of its forests. In 1997 these goals were hailed by many and gave everybody a false sense of security. If the EPA fails to hold to the new standards set and uses excuses like, if we hold to the standards then we will have to tax all the drivers of SUV's or some other smoke and mirror excuse, ask yourself, what made them think these goals were achievable in the first place. GET YOUR HANDS OUT OF OUR POCKETS NOW!!! Since 1997 the same folks who also pushed for this law, were also pushing for 40B (no developer left behind) law. I see nothing affordable about 40B housing and all I see is the air quality and dismantling of our rural town’s Quality of Life and Budgets destroyed! Now the smoke and mirror’s people are trying to tell us trees are the problem and the air is more polluted in forest regions! Next they will be telling us wind power and solar power is the problem. Economic growth is now at stake, try bringing back our livable wage American jobs from overseas especially “Communist China” and our economy will grow just fine. Well maybe for the working people not the greedy or control freaks who profit from all the smoke and mirror bull. Next thing you know these same people will be telling us a fossil fuel plant is perfectly safe and will not cause a problem with our Air Quality, and probably have some fancy college’s professor tell us that when he uses some smoke and mirror stats he is given and not doing studies on his own. Hold to the standards and use some good old fashioned American Common Sense to figure out what is really causing the problem. Happy Birthday America
24.34.144.49
EPA goals unreachable
By Boston Herald editorial staff
Sunday, July 1, 2007
This could throw new roadblocks in the path of economic development in Massachusetts and much of the country.
The pollutant at issue is ozone, which can impair breathing, damage the lungs and harm the cardiovascular system. Ozone forms when oxides of nitrogen produced by combustion react in sunlight with hydrocarbon vapors, especially in warm weather. Massachusetts barely meets the current ozone standard at 14 of its 16 air-quality monitors. If EPA adopts the toughest version of its proposal, all but one of the monitors would show noncompliance.
Compliance means a reading of 0.08 parts per million of ozone averaged over eight hours. EPA has asked for comment on setting the standard at 0.07 to 0.075 ppm or leaving it alone.
A change would produce health gains, but they would be few and cost much.
Existing regulations will keep reducing the emission of ozone precursors for a decade or more. Though EPA has never assessed the effectiveness of its 1997 standard, the agency’s proposal would set the new standard at the “natural background” in many areas.
The background in Massachusetts is unknown since all monitors catch at least some ozone blowing in from Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. An industry study a decade ago concluded that about 80 percent of ozone on high-ozone days at the Ware monitor was due to background. If that’s true today, the background at Ware is 0.068 ppm, very close to EPA’s 0.07 proposal.
Some other rural areas, away from metropolitan influence, help make the point.
Atop Mount Washington in New Hampshire, the current measurement is 0.076. In Bennington, Vt., it’s 0.084. In Seney, Mich., in the Upper Peninsula, it’s 0.078. Only luck could put these monitors in compliance.
Back to costs, which the EPA must ignore in setting the standard (one of the law’s insanities). Costs can’t be discussed until EPA produces its Regulatory Impact Analysis, promised “in a few weeks.” Stay tuned.
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The Smoke and Mirror's of Law
AGAIN, GET YOUR HANDS OUT OF OUR POCKETS!!!
Ed
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