CLEAN Energy Act of 2007 Passes Senate

On Thursday, the US Senate voted 65-27 to pass the new energy bill, CLEAN Energy Act of 2007 (H.R. 6), which would help reduce foreign oil dependency, increase production of alternative fuels, and boost fuel economy be requiring vehicles to average 35 miles per gallon by 2020, a 40 percent increase over today’s standards. Although it was a bi-partisan win for the bill, neither Democrats nor Republicans got exactly what they wanted. H.R. 6 is expected to also pass the House, possibly as soon as next week.

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EPA Completes Second Step in Ongoing Ground-Level Ozone Air Quality Standards Review

A key document in EPA's review of national air quality standards for ozone will recommend the administrator consider strengthening the current ozone standards to better protect public health. The document, known as the "final staff paper," contains staff recommendations for the administrator to consider in upcoming decisions about revising the agency's ozone standards.

The Clean Air Act requires EPA to periodically review its air quality standards to ensure they continue to protect health and the environment, and to update the standards if necessary. EPA last updated the standards for ozone in 1997.

The final ozone staff paper addresses a primary standard, designed to protect public health; and a secondary standard, set to protect the public welfare, including crop health.

· Primary standard: The final staff paper concludes that the current primary standard is not adequate to protect public health. Staff made this conclusion based on an expanded body of scientific evidence that shows significant ozone health effects occur even in areas with ozone levels below the current standard.

Staff recommends a range of levels for the administrator to consider in setting the ozone standard. That range extends from below 0.080 ppm down to 0.060 ppm. The previous draft of the staff paper identified options that included retaining the current standard of 0.084 ppm, along with a range of alternative levels down to 0.064 (the lowest level analyzed), with a focus on a level of 0.07 ppm.

The final staff paper also recommends specifying the level of the standard to three decimal places. Ozone air quality measurements have advanced sufficiently to now reflect that level of precision.

· Secondary Standard: The final staff paper recommends the administrator set a secondary standard to protect against ozone damage to welfare, including damage to plants. This includes damage to natural vegetation, forests and commercial crops. Staff recommended a standard that is a cumulative, weighted total of daily 12-hour exposures over a three-month period within the growing season. It would give greater weight to exposures at higher ozone concentrations.

Staff also recommended a range for this standard, from 21 parts per million-hours to 7 parts per million-hours.

EPA will make the final ozone staff paper available on the web on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007. Also this week, the agency will release technical documents used in developing the staff paper. These documents include a health risk assessment for meeting the current ozone standards along with potential alternative standards, and an assessment of the effects of ozone on vegetation.

The assessments, conclusions and recommendations included in the staff paper are staff judgments. They do not represent agency decisions on the ozone standards. EPA will propose action on the ozone standards by June 20, 2007 and take final action by March 12, 2008.

EPA recently changed the process for reviewing the National Ambient Air Quality Standards to streamline future such reviews to ensure the agency meets its five-year deadlines for reviewing the standards.

Emissions of the pollutants that contribute to ground-level ozone have decreased by nearly 50 percent since 1970, and EPA, and state and local agencies have a number of programs in place to continue this progress.

See the Source:
Final Ozone Staff Paper and Fact Sheet
Technical Support Documents

Find out:
The impact of NOx, a major contributor to ground-level ozone, and how to decrease NOx emissions by up to 95% using CleanAIR's selective catalytic reduction.

EPA Enforcement Cuts Total Pollution by Record 3 Billion Pounds Over Last Three Years

Air Pollution Reductions Alone Result in Health Benefits of $3.5 Billion Yearly

(Washington, D.C. - Nov. 15, 2006) The Environmental Protection Agency has obtained commitments from industry, governments and other regulated entities to reduce pollution by nearly 900 million pounds in fiscal year 2006. Today's report reflects a sustained three-year record of pollution reduction, totaling almost 3 billion pounds, and requiring companies to invest almost $20 billion in pollution control equipment. More than 70 percent of these reductions were achieved by addressing high-priority air and water pollution challenges.

"Today's results show that we are making significant progress in protecting the environment and public health," said Granta Y. Nakayama, EPA's assistant administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. "EPA is encouraging environmental stewardship and vigorously enforcing our laws in order to deliver current and future generations a cleaner, healthier America."

As a result of criminal enforcement actions completed this year, defendants will serve 154 years in jail and pay almost $43 million in fines, as well as another $29 million for environmental projects imposed as part of the sentences. EPA's civil enforcement program also demonstrated strong results this year by concluding a total of 173 judicial cases, 4,624 final administrative penalty order settlements, and resolving self-disclosed violations for 1,475 facilities. EPA referred 286 civil cases to the U.S. Department of Justice, the highest total in five years.

As a result of EPA's Superfund enforcement actions, parties held responsible for pollution will invest $391 million to clean up 15 million cubic yards of contaminated soil and approximately 1.3 billion cubic yards of contaminated groundwater at waste sites. On top of paying penalties in 2006, regulated entities will also be required to invest $4.9 billion to reduce pollution and achieve compliance with environmental laws.

EPA's enforcement program targeted significant environmental problems facing the country, including harmful air emissions, noncompliance at petroleum refineries and water pollution. EPA's top air enforcement actions will result in reductions in harmful air emissions totaling 379 million pounds of sulfur dioxide and 92 million pounds of nitrogen oxides annually. When fully implemented, the annual human health benefits from these air emission reductions are valued at $3.5 billion. These health benefits include reducing about 500 premature deaths in people with heart or lung disease, prevention of hundreds of cases of bronchitis and nonfatal heart attacks, as well as thousands of cases of respiratory ailments, including aggravated asthma.

As a result of EPA's work to reduce pollution from petroleum refineries, 85 refineries, representing 77 percent of domestic refining capacity, are now subject to enforceable orders and consent decrees, and negotiations are ongoing with refiners representing an additional 11 percent of capacity. EPA's priority efforts to control overflows from sewers and runoff from storm water and concentrated animal feeding operations resulted in a more than 230 million pound decrease in water pollution, including sediment, bacteria, raw sewage, untreated industrial wastes and animal wastes.

More information on EPA's FY 2006 enforcement and compliance program, including details of significant enforcement and compliance activities and data, is available on EPA's fiscal year 2006 enforcement and compliance results: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/data/results/annual/fy2006.html

Help EPA protect our nation's land, air and water by reporting violations: http://www.epa.gov/tips