Posts for January 8, 2010

EPA STRENGTHENS SMOG STANDARD

Proposed standards, strictest to date, will protect the health of all Americans, especially children
January 8, 2010

WASHINGTON – The United States Environmental Protection Agency today proposed the strictest health standards to date for smog. Smog, also known as ground-level ozone, is linked to a number of serious health problems, ranging from aggravation of asthma to increased risk of premature death in people with heart or lung disease. Ozone can even harm healthy people who work and play outdoors. The agency is proposing to replace the standards set by the previous administration, which many believe were not protective enough of human health.

“EPA is stepping up to protect Americans from one of the most persistent and widespread pollutants we face. Smog in the air we breathe poses a very serious health threat, especially to children and individuals suffering from asthma and lung disease. It dirties our air, clouds our cities, and drives up our health care costs across the country,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Using the best science to strengthen these standards is a long overdue action that will help millions of Americans breathe easier and live healthier.”

The agency is proposing to set the “primary” standard, which protects public health, at a level between 0.060 and 0.070 parts per million (ppm) measured over eight hours. Children are at the greatest risk from ozone, because their lungs are still developing, they are most likely to be active outdoors, and they are more likely than adults to have asthma. Adults with asthma or other lung diseases, and older adults are also sensitive to ozone.

EPA is also proposing to set a separate “secondary” standard to protect the environment, especially plants and trees. This seasonal standard is designed to protect plants and trees from damage occurring from repeated ozone exposure, which can reduce tree growth, damage leaves, and increase susceptibility to disease.

In September 2009 Administrator Jackson announced that EPA would reconsider the existing ozone standards, set at 0.075 ppm in March 2008. As part of its reconsideration, EPA conducted a review of the science that guided the 2008 decision, including more than 1,700 scientific studies and public comments from the 2008 rulemaking process. EPA also reviewed the findings of the independent Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, which recommended standards in the ranges proposed today.

Depending on the level of the final standard, the proposal would yield health benefits between $13 billion and $100 billion. This proposal would help reduce premature deaths, aggravated asthma, bronchitis cases, hospital and emergency room visits and days when people miss work or school because of ozone-related symptoms. Estimated costs of implementing this proposal range from $19 billion to $90 billion.

Ground-level ozone forms when emissions from industrial facilities, power plants, landfills and motor vehicles react in the sun.

EPA will take public comment for 60 days after the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register. The agency will hold three public hearings on the proposal: Feb. 2, 2010 in Arlington, Va. and in Houston; and Feb. 4, 2010 in Sacramento.

More information: http://www.epa.gov/groundlevelozone

EPA ANNOUNCES NEW OZONE STANDARDS

January 8, 2010- H. Michael Keller, Vancott Bagley(Mike is a member of the UMA Air Quality Committee)

This week EPA announced a proposal to tighten primary and secondary air quality standards for ground-level (as opposed to stratospheric) ozone. The regulated precursor pollutants for ozone are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrous oxides (NOx).

The proposal would lower the primary 8-hour standard set in 2008 at 0.075 ppm to a level between 0.060 and 0.070 ppm.

The proposal would also set a separate secondary standard to protect plants and trees from damage from ozone. The secondary standard would be a cumulative peak-weighted index called W126, that would require the three-year average of the cumulative seasonal peak-weighted index for an area to be less than or equal to a standard of between 7–15 ppm-hours. [A ppm-hour is a measure of exposure, with one ppm-hour representing the exposure of 1ppm for one hour.]

There will be a 60-day public comment period which will run after the proposal is published in the Federal Register. EPA currently projects issuing final revised ozone standards by August 31, 2010.

Historically, Utah was in attainment of the federal ozone standard since the early 1990’s. The original standard was a 1-hour standard of 0.120 ppm. In 1997, EPA changed the standard to an 8-hour standard of 0.080 ppm. Utah continued to meet attainment, but in 2008, EPA reduced the 8-hour standard for ozone from 0.080 ppm to 0.075 ppm. Monitoring data showed that Salt Lake County, Davis County and the western portion of Weber County would not meet the new standard, and Utah submitted to EPA a recommendation for designating those areas as nonattainment under the revised ozone standard. EPA is scheduled to issue a final designation decision on Utah’s recommendation by March 2010.

Obviously, if the ozone standard is lowered even further as proposed in this recent action by EPA, Utah will have even greater difficulty in meeting attainment of the new standard and wider areas may be rendered nonattainment for ozone.

BINGAMAN: SENATE PASSAGE OF CAP-AND-TRADE BILL UNLIKELY THIS YEAR

January 8, 2010- By Kathleen Hart


With two Senate Democrats announcing they will not seek re-election in 2010 and economic worries steering moderate lawmakers away from legislation that could raise electricity costs, a key senator and a Brookings Institution analyst see little likelihood of the Senate passing a cap-and-trade bill this year.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said Jan. 5 that it is unclear whether Congress can pass a cap-and-trade bill aimed at reducing U.S. carbon dioxide emissions this year. According to an Associated Press report, Bingaman told reporters that there is no consensus on what form a cap-and-trade system would take. Bingaman's remarks came following the tour of Schott Solar's manufacturing plant in Albuquerque, N.M.

"I am not terribly optimistic the Senate will pass climate change legislation in 2010," Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, said during a briefing Jan. 6. "Legislation will be much tougher in 2010 and after the midterm elections. The number of Democrats in the House and Senate will be considerably less, and it will be challenging" to get members to make hard votes on President Barack Obama's behalf.

Calling the international climate change talks that were held in Copenhagen in December 2009 "disappointing," West said he is not sure what will happen with climate change policy. "It is a tough issue for Democrats because you have political differences between coal-producing and non-producing states."

The primary hurdle Obama faces in trying to pass climate change legislation is the fact that 60 votes are now needed to pass major legislation in the Senate. "Filibuster usage is completely out of hand," West said. "If you go back to the 1960s, there was an average of seven filibusters a year. Last session, there were 137 filibusters. We effectively have moved from a majority to super-majority requirement in the Senate because of the need for 60 votes to cut off debate."
West argued that no president can govern effectively with a supermajority requirement. Currently, Democrats have 60 members in their caucus while Republicans have 40. However, with Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., announcing that they will not run for re-election in 2010, the Democratic supermajority will face a challenge.

"The retirements of these leading Democrats will be a huge complicating factor for Obama. It weakens his political situation because it increases the odds of Republicans getting some seats back," especially North Dakota, West said. "My sense is Democrats will shift toward a jobs message in 2010 in order to focus on the issue that is centermost for voters and to attempt to minimize their political losses. They probably will lead to an 'easing off' strategy that pushes hard votes down the road. The result will be that not too much will move on the legislative agenda after health care reform."

While Dodd's decision to retire from the Senate was not entirely unexpected, Dorgan's Jan. 5 announcement took many Democratic leaders by surprise. Dorgan, who represents a Republican-leaning state, has been a key player on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

SENATE FACES CLIMATE-CHANGE CHALLENGE

January 8, 2010 - By Jennifer A. Dlouhy- Hearst News Service

WASHINGTON — It took Democratic leaders weeks of negotiations, deal-cutting and floor debate before they could squeak a broad health care overhaul bill through the Senate last month.

But that was nothing compared to the challenge this spring if those leaders press forward with controversial legislation to combat global warming.

The plan to cap greenhouse gases blamed for the earth's changing climate is complicated by election year politics and fears about exacerbating the nation's economic woes.

It's also hindered by moderate Democrats' wariness about the centerpiece of the leading proposals: so-called cap-and-trade programs that would allow carbon dioxide emitters to comply with steadily tightening greenhouse gas limits either by cutting their emissions or by buying and trading allowances to release the substances.

The leading climate change proposals face deep opposition from Republicans worried about the potential price tag for utilities, manufacturers and consumers.

The proposals also are eyed skeptically by Democrats in coal-producing regions whose home-state industries could be battered by new carbon caps.

Although the House narrowly passed its version of climate change legislation last June, the issue has languished in the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said the issue won't be debated until spring at the earliest — after the chamber deals with a financial regulatory overhaul and a jobs bill.

In the meantime, Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass.; Joe Lieberman, I-Ct.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are working on a compromise measure designed to attract the crucial 60 votes needed to overcome procedural hurdles and to advance controversial legislation in the Senate.

Because a handful of Democrats — including Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska — are unlikely to support a final climate change bill, supporters know they will need to win some Republican votes to prevail.

The three are planning on combining a cap-and-trade plan with expanded offshore oil and gas drilling, new incentives and loans for nuclear power and support for developing so-called “clean coal” technology that can trap carbon dioxide released when the fossil fuel is burned.

Lieberman said the mix of ideas represents “a shared vision about how we get over 60 votes.”
Graham argues the proposals for expanding offshore drilling, boosting nuclear power and capping carbon dioxide are too controversial to pass the Senate on their own. But combined together, they stand a chance of passage.

“We're marrying up concepts that have never been married up before,” Graham said. “The energy bill will never have 60 votes for the nuclear power provisions that I desire. We'll never have offshore drilling standing alone. They'll never get the (House climate change) bill passed standing alone.

“Let's combine concepts of controlling pollution and energy independence,” Graham added.

“That's where the votes are at.”

The negotiations have been cheered on by the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, an umbrella group of environmental advocacy groups and businesses — including GE, Dow Chemical and Shell — that backed the House-passed bill.

But some environmental advocates, already concerned about the compromises made to win passage of the House bill, worry the measure will be weakened further in the push for 60 votes.
Industry groups whose members could be hit hard by carbon caps so far have panned the Kerry-Lieberman-Graham outline. Protections for refiners and expanded drilling opportunities, they say, do little to fix a fundamentally flawed approach to capping carbon dioxide.

SENATOR BENNETT AND OVER 16,000 UTAHNS SAY “NO” TO OBAMACARE

SALT LAKE CITY…. Today, Senator Bob Bennett announced an unprecedented display of Utah’s unified opposition to President Obama’s health care bill.

“I asked Utahns to sign an online petition to stand with me in opposition to the current health care proposal the Democrats have rammed through Congress,” said Senator Bennett. “The response was overwhelming. Over 16,000 have signed.”

At the time of this release, the total number of signatories stood at 16,304. “These are people from all over the state of Utah,” said campaign spokesman Jim Bennett. “And it’s not over yet. The petition is still online at Senator Bennett’s website, bennettforsenate.com.”

Senator Bennett acknowledged that opponents of the health care bill face an uphill battle, but that the fight is not over yet. “Those Democrats who caved in and voted for the bill are now feeling the heat in their home states,” he said. “That’s no surprise – this bill would cost trillions of dollars, gut Medicare, and still not address the fundamental health care problems we face as a nation.”

Senator Bennett also emphasized that the petition signatures are significant regardless of what the final outcome is. “This is largely about holding President Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi responsible for what they’re trying to inflict on this country,” said the senator. “They now know that a sizeable number of people in Utah are adamantly opposed to what they’re doing.”
Senator Bennett is discussing the health care debate at a series of Fireside Chats throughout the state. A complete list of these events is available online at blog.bennettforsenate.com.