EPA Would Fail Communities with Latest Ozone Standard Draft

Washington, DC – Late yesterday, President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) followed the Trump administration in releasing a draft policy assessment proposing to retain the nationwide ozone standards without revision. Later this summer, the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) will make a formal recommendation whether to strengthen the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone (smog pollution), or to uphold EPA’s weak and inadequate 2015 primary standard that fails to protect public health and the secondary “welfare standard” found unlawful by the DC Circuit Court not once but twice. 

EPA’s policy assessment comes just hours before a scheduled meeting of the CASAC, which will review this draft, before meeting in June to develop its own proposal. EPA staff concluded it has “not identified any potential alternative standards for consideration.”

Ground-level ozone is a dangerous pollutant that is like a sunburn to the lungs, and can cause respiratory illness and asthma, and is created when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) react in the atmosphere. Ozone-forming pollutants are emitted by heavy industry, fossil fuel power plants, and motor vehicles. The American Lung Association’s 2022 State of the Air report found that more than 40% of Americans – over 137 million people – live in communities with high levels of ozone, and nearly every state experienced unhealthy levels of ozone last summer according to EDF’s summer ozone report. 

In response, Sierra Club’s Senior Director of Energy Campaigns Holly Bender released the following statement:

“EPA’s primary responsibility in setting national air pollution standards is to ensure the air is safe to breathe. Suggesting the EPA uphold the grossly outdated standards for smog pollution that have resulted in most Americans facing unhealthy summer air quality just as families and communities are hoping to spend more time outdoors, is not only wrong, it’s dangerous. Climate change is making summertime smog pollution even worse, further burdening communities across the country – in particular Black and Brown communities – that have lived under the constant weight of dangerous pollutants driving respiratory illness and asthma rates. We urge the Biden Administration to apply a more sound scientific approach. 

“Last month, the CASAC recommended a stronger air quality standard for particulate matter based on the abundance of scientific and public health data that shows a stronger standard is necessary to protect public health and the environment. When the CASAC panel for ozone reconvenes in June, we expect – because they should and must – they’ll reach a similar conclusion.”