EPA may release important air-quality study by July 14: Sources

EPA may release important air-quality study by July 14: Sources

Washington (Platts)--10Jul2006

The US Environmental Protection Agency could unveil an air-quality
study that may have big implications for the power and transportation sectors
as early as this week, sources said.
The study relates to EPA's national air-quality standard for ground level
ozone, commonly known as "smog." EPA is under court order to review the
standard, and the study that the agency is poised to release could recommend
tightening it.
That could have new regulatory implications for coal-fired power plants,
which contribute to the formulation of smog through emissions of nitrogen
dioxide. Automobile emissions are another major source of smog, which sickens
and kills thousands of people annually, according to public health experts.
EPA last updated its ozone standard in 1997, during the Clinton
administration. A host of industry groups, led by the transportation and power
sectors, filed suit in an effort to prevent EPA from tightening the standard.
The industry groups said that strengthening the standard was not
scientifically warranted, and that the move would inflict billions of dollars
of damage on the economy.
The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled
that EPA had the authority to strengthen the standard regardless of the
economic consequences of doing so.
Some Republican lawmakers, led by Senator James Inhofe, have warned in
recent months that they will put up a fight if EPA tries once to strengthen
the standard.
The study that will be released will say whether or not EPA staff
scientists believe the standard should be strengthened. EPA is required to
make a formal recommendation on the standard by March 28, 2007.

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