http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/science/earth/12epa.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Five health and environmental groups sued
the Obama administration on Tuesday over its rejection of a proposed
stricter new standard for ozone pollution, saying the decision was
driven by politics and ignored public health concerns.
The groups
said that President Obama’s refusal to adopt the new standard was
illegal and left in place an inadequate air quality rule from the Bush
administration. Near the end of his presidency, George W. Bush overruled
the Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific advisory panel and set the permissible ozone exposure at 75 parts per billion.
The current E.P.A. administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, wanted to set the
standard at 70 parts per billion, near the maximum level recommended by
the advisory panel. But President Obama rejected the proposal
on Sept. 2, saying that compliance would be too costly and create too
much regulatory uncertainty for industry. He ordered the E.P.A. to
conduct further scientific studies and come up with a new proposal in
2013.
The decision infuriated environmental groups, who called it a betrayal,
but cheered business leaders, who said that the ozone rule was one of
the most onerous of the administration’s proposed environmental
regulations.
Ground-level ozone is the main ingredient in smog, which is linked to
premature deaths, heart attacks and lung ailments, including childhood
asthma.
The standard rejected by Mr. Obama would have thrown hundreds of
counties out of compliance with air quality regulations and imposed
costs of $19 billion to $25 billion, according to E.P.A estimates. But the resulting health benefits would have been $13 billion to $37 billion, the agency calculated.
1. If you were one of the lawyers sueing the Obama Administration, what would be some of the reasons to do so, and why?
2. Do you think that this proposal, had it been passed, would have helped or worsened Americas Health care crisis? Why ?
Thanks, Matt
Thursday, October 13, 2011
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