IT'S OZONE TIME: The EPA is kicking off the process of reviewing the nation's ground-level ozone pollution standard, a project likely to take years. In a notice due for publication in the Federal Register Tuesday, the EPA says it's taking comments from the public to prepare initial documents for the review. Those documents will lay out the plan for the review process and the scientific literature on ozone, a component of smog. The review will take place under new standards that President Trump set in an April memo. He instructed the EPA, when setting new air quality rules, to consider factors like "adverse public health or other effects that may result from implementation" of the rules and the extent to which areas have background levels of the pollutants that aren't caused by human activity. Both factors have long been pushed by industry in an attempt to get more lenient air pollution standards written. Inhaling ozone is linked to respiratory ailments like asthma attacks. Since ozone can be created from pollutants caused by burning fossil fuels, states with areas that exceed the federal standard often look to reduce fossil fuel use, an often-expensive proposition. The EPA last set a new ozone standard in 2015, declaring that 70 parts per billion is the acceptable level for ambient air. Read more. BISHOP SAYS CHINESE COULD USE ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS AGAINST MILITARY: House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said Monday that China's government may be using United States environmental laws to thwart the military. Bishop, speaking Monday on Hill.TV's "Rising," said potential Chinese actions to undermine the military are one of the main focuses of a series of investigations his panel recently launched into U.S.-based environmental groups. "There is obviously a great deal of concerns," Bishop told host Buck Sexton, adding that some of the green groups "are claiming that they're suing the government once every 10 days." "Last time I was in the Pacific in some of our territories, we had a briefing from some of the military that simply said the Chinese know our environmental laws and they use them against us," Bishop continued. "We're trying to explore how deep that actually goes, whether it's something done on purpose or something just by serendipity. But we're trying to see where that takes us," he said. Bishop and Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) launched the project earlier this month with a letter demanding certain documents and answers from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the dominant U.S. group in environmental lobbying. NRDC fires back: The group denied that it is working on China's behalf. "NRDC's work, in the United States and elsewhere, serves the public interest. It is directed by our senior leadership and policy experts, accountable to our independent board of trustees and supported by millions of Americans," Bob Deans, the group's director of strategic engagement, said in a statement after Bishop sent his initial letter. "Any suggestion to the contrary is just false." Read more. |
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