From Powerline:
EPA Lost in the Ozone, As Usual
Just one day after the Supreme Court granted cert to review the EPA’s ridiculous mercury regulations, the EPA announced that it would lower the ozone standard to .06 parts per million, from the current .075 parts per million. This is the same regulation that President Obama canceled in 2011 because, as the New York Times described it, “Mr. Obama said the regulation would impose too severe a burden on industry and local governments at a time of economic distress.”
This is another one of those issues that brings out the worst environmental hyperbole. Such as this in the New York Times story yesterday:
William Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, said, “Ozone is not only killing people, but causing tens of millions of people to get sick every day.”
Tens of millions every day! It’s a wonder there are any Americans left alive anywhere in the country, since ozone is overtaking tens of millions every day. Somehow I missed the rising epidemic of ozone-related illness, which somehow fails to stand out in the steadily improving health of the American people.
If the “tens of millions” hyperbole were an evenly remotely accurate rendering of the health risk from ozone, then why would’t environmentalists demand that the ozone standard be set at zero? One reason is that the proposed standard is close to naturally occurring background ozone levels in some areas of the country (especially the southeast).
The EPA is a perfect example of an agency that needs to have its funding cut by 80% if not defunded entirely. They accomplished what they set out to do - clean up America - and having nothing more to do, they have proceeded to grow the size and scope of their bureaucracy. Their job is done - time to disband and move on to something else.
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