Ozone Regulations Essays - Smog, Environment, Air Pollution, Gases

Ozone Regulations In 1997 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established new ozone standards. The EPA also placed special restrictions on twenty-two states in the Ohio Valley and Midwest regions to prevent emissions from coal-burning power plants from being carried into the New England States by wind currents. (Tennessee is one of these twenty-two states.) Both of these rulings were recently either struck down or placed on hold by Federal Appeals Courts. Why: The regulations put into place in 1997 by the EPA were more restrictive than the 1990 standards. The regulations limit the amount of ground level ozone and fine particle pollution permitted. Ground level ozone is produced by nitrogen oxide(NOx) which is created by burning fossil fuels. Since gasoline and diesel are both fossil fuels, then NOx is a major component of automobile emissions. Several members of the trucking and fossil fuel industries, as well as members of the twenty-two state region, have challenged the regulations in Federal Court and have been successful in blocking the implementation of the new rules. In the past two months, two separate Federal Court Of Appeals panels have ruled that the EPA's authority to establish clean air standards is not properly delegated by Congress under the Clean Air Act. Therefore, since the EPA is a part of the Executive branch of government and not the Legislative, they have no authority to produce regulations on their own. The plaintiffs in the case also argued that the amount of pollution a person can tolerate has not been established and until it is the EPA should not make the current regulations more restrictive. How: The main actors in this event are the American Trucking Associations and their fellow plaintiffs, the twenty-two state coalition, the EPA, and the Federal Appeals Court. Why would the American Trucking Associations and other fossil fuel burning industries want to limit the EPA's authority? What do they have to gain? Last year, according to the EPA's own press release detailing their enforcement efforts in fiscal year 1998, the EPA referred 266 criminal cases to the Department of Justice, as well as 411 civil court cases. Approximately half of the civil cases required violators to change the way they manage their facilities or to reduce their emissions or discharges. The EPA also assessed almost $93 million dollars in criminal fines and another $92 million in civil penalties. In addition to fines and penalties, polluters spent over $2 billion dollars to correct violations. Not included in this estimate would be the legal expenses incurred or the advertising and marketing costs required to mend a damaged pubic relations image. Clearly it is in the industries' best financial interest if the regulations are less restrictive. Many companies that spent large amounts of money to meet the 1990 Clean Air Act standards would have to spend even more to meet the amended 1997 standards. Do the states in the twenty-two state region have another reason to argue against the standards? According to Sean Cavanagh's article in the April 4, 1999 edition of the Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Atlanta lost $700 million in federal roads money as a result of failing to come up with a pollution containment plan. In addition, the state of Georgia had to fund a state "superagency" to develop and enforce transit plans that meet federal standards. The states joined the industrial groups in claiming that the new standards are too strict and are unnecessary. Chattanooga is not expected to meet the new requirements by the year 2000 deadline and Chattanooga Mayor Kensey and Tennessee Governor Sundquist were two of the public officials who protested the new standards as being too strict. Are the new standards too strict? How does the EPA determine the required levels? According to the press release issued by the EPA following the court's decision, the Federal Courts are not questioning "the science and process conducted by the EPA justifying the setting of new, more protective standards." The EPA claims that their standards, which are designed to limit the affects that smog and soot have on people with respiratory problems, protect 125 million Americans including 35 million children. The Federal Courts only have issue with the constitutionality of certain parts of the Clean Air Act that allow the EPA to establish clean air regulations in the interest of public health. The EPA is recommending that the Department of Justice appeal the ruling to the US Supreme Court. Several interest groups are closely watching the case. The powerful industrial and truckers lobby groups are supporting the plaintiffs, while several environmental lobby groups and health