Department of Environmental Protection announced this week that it has joined a coalition of states and cities in lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for adopting air pollution standards that do not protect public health and the environment, but lead to greater levels of smog.

The lawsuit includes: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, New York City, and the District of Columbia.

In March, the EPA acted against the specific recommendations of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee—the agency’s independent science advisors—and adopted two new, substantially weaker standards for regulating ground-level ozone pollution, commonly referred to as smog.

“The EPA and the Bush administration have again chosen politics over science, adopting air pollution standards that are not as strong as they could be, and are less protective of the public’s health and the environment,” said DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty. “It is unfortunate that states need to petition the courts to force EPA to carry out its mission to protect American citizens and the quality of the air we breathe.”

The federal Clean Air Act requires EPA to regularly review and update primary and secondary national ambient air quality standards every five years. The primary standard defines the maximum amount of smog concentrations that can be in the atmosphere before causing public health harms such as chronic lung disease, asthma attacks and premature death in some cases.

The primary standard must provide an adequate margin of safety, as the science advisors' recommended standard did. The secondary standard defines the smog concentrations that can be in the atmosphere before damaging public welfare by reducing crop productivity and harming plants and animals.

On May 20, during a congressional hearing on EPA’s new eight-hour ozone standards, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee revealed that the agency succumbed to pressure from White House officials to ignore the recommendations of the agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and adopted a weaker secondary air pollution standard.

Since 1995 Pennsylvania has take action in the form of petitions and court action to force EPA to deal with ozone pollution issues, like the interstate transport of ozone, that affect Pennsylvania, including against the Clinton Administration.

For more information, visit DEP’s Ozone Standard webpage.

5/30/2008