U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, has thrown his support behind legislation that could halt new Environmental Protection Agency regulations meant to strengthen the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
The American Press reports the updated standards would limit ground-level smog to 70 parts per billion. The EPA says the new regulations would help at-risk groups such as children, people with asthma and outdoor workers.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, focuses on extending the implementation schedule for the ozone standard to 2025 so “states and localities can adequately achieve new, lower standards with time for compliance.”
Boustany says the bill would combat the EPA’s delinquency in “providing guidance to states for compliance with new costly ozone standards.”
In 2015, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said the changes would cost Louisiana billions in gross state product and “devastate our national economy” by wiping out numerous industries and thousands of jobs.
Other lawmakers against the standard changes are saying that since the agency revised its air quality rules in 2008, but did not publish the standards for implementation until 2015, states would now be forced to adhere to two different sets of ozone standards.
According to the National Association of Manufacturers, the EPA’s 2015 regulations could cost Louisiana $43 billion in compliance costs and $11 billion in gross state product between 2017 and 2040, and that the rules would eliminate 34,169 jobs or job equivalents per year.
The White House released a statement after the bill’s passage, saying it would veto the measure because it would undermine Clean Air Act protections and block “efforts to reduce harmful ground-level ozone pollution in communities across the country.”
