Commentary
Hello Los Angeles, Houston, and the San Joaquin Valley, May I Introduce You to Cleaner Air
This blog was written by guest blogger, Adrian Martinez of the National Resource Defense Council. Originally posted here.
Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in favor of clean air and promoting stronger public health for millions of Americans. The case dealt with a challenge to an EPA guidance document that failed to hold some of the nation’s most polluted regions accountable to clean air standards. Specifically, the Guidance document dealt with a fee that should be assessed when regions fail to meet a clean air standard for ozone on time. As EPA reports—
Despite having decades to meet federal clean air standards, several regions have failed to meet even the most basic standards. These regions include the Los Angeles region, San Joaquin Valley of California, and Houston, Texas. When Congress amended the Clean Air Act in 1990, it sought to create more mechanisms to push regions with especially bad pollution to actually meet clean air standards on time. One of the provisions they added was a fee on the largest stationary sources of pollution in these regions (e.g. refineries, powerplants, etc.). The fee was meant to encourage regions to actually meet the standards on time or suffer the consequences of paying a fee. It also serves as an incentive for regions that fail to meet standards to fix the problem quickly to make the fee go away.
The decision of the Court is significant because it ensures that the nation’s most polluted regions truly address dirty air sources that promote increased rates of asthma in children and the elderly, impede lung function and promote other health ailments to residents throughout these regions.
Also, the decision will compel these regions to revisit and revise their plans to clean the air. For example, in the Los Angeles region, we have no viable plan in place to actually meet the standard we just failed to meet on November 15, 2010. With no plan in place, it makes the decision of the D.C. Circuit all the more important because it compels regions to engage in the difficult task of revising their failed plans to clean the air.
In the end, I want to thank the lawyers at Earthjustice who did an amazing job representing NRDC in this case. They should be commended for their excellent lawyering and the great impact it will have on the health of children, the elderly, and every resident in some of the nation’s most polluted urban areas. We are one step closer to breathing cleaner air thanks to today’s decision.
