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EPA Will Reconsider the Ozone NAAQS — What Is An Adequate Margin of Safety, Anyway?

Law and Environment

On Friday, EPA announced that it was reconsidering its 2020 decision to leave the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone unchanged. However, EPA stated that it: will reconsider the decision to retain the ozone NAAQS in a manner that adheres to rigorous standards of scientific integrity.

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Improving EPA’s Latest Ozone Transport Rule

Acoel

The downwind air quality benefits are minimal. The proposed rule would provide de minimus air quality benefits in downwind areas with extremely high costs – estimated by EPA at $22 billion discounted 2016 dollars for the 2023-2042 period. enjoyed ozone reductions of 3 to 5 ppb or more. ppb by 2025. EPA estimated that: .

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EPA’s Power Plant Carbon Rules Are Critical—and Complex. Here’s What to Know, and What to Watch.

Union of Concerned Scientists

Multiple lines of analysis make clear that regardless of how cheap wind and solar power get, without directly addressing pollution from coal and gas plants, the country’s clean energy transition will not happen fast enough. Section 111 of the Clean Air Act constrains how EPA sets standards—but gives states wide latitude in implementation.

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Ohio EPA Division of Air Pollution Control hosts Program Advisory Group Meeting

Vorys Law

On January 20, 2021, the Ohio EPA’s Division of Air Pollution Control (DAPC) hosted a “Program Advisory Group” (PAG) meeting via Microsoft Teams to inform interested stakeholders of recent and upcoming DAPC activities. This post focuses on Ohio EPA’s anticipated regulatory changes to address non-attainment of the 2015 Ozone NAAQS.

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Public Comment Period Opens as Ohio EPA Issues Draft Revisions to Reasonably Available Control Technology (“RACT”) Requirements for Control of VOC and NOx Emissions

Vorys Law

Ohio EPA has proposed rules that will require additional Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) and Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emission controls for certain manufacturing and industrial operations located in the Cincinnati and Cleveland 2015 ozone nonattainment areas. Like VOCs, NOx is a precursor compound which can form ozone.

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The Problems with the SCOTUS ‘Good Neighbor’ Arguments

Legal Planet

EPA has been implementing the Good Neighbor Provision since the 1990s to successfully reduce significant contributions from power plants (and sometimes other types of big industrial sources) to ozone pollution (also called smog) in downwind States.

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Evolving Air Quality Standards

Legal Planet

The goal of the Clean Air Act is to achieve national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), with the primary requirement being protection of public health. As our understanding of the health effects of air pollution has improved, there has been a general trend toward tightening the standards. ppm in 2015.

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