Obama’s New Ozone Standard Has Green Groups Seeing Red

The Obama administration handed a win to industry groups Thursday on a fiercely debated rule for smog-causing ozone pollution — leaving green groups feeling betrayed once again and threatening legal action.

The new EPA standard is stricter than one the George W. Bush administration had set in 2008, but it’s far laxer than what environmental and public health groups consider necessary to lessen illnesses like childhood asthma.

Thursday’s action came four years after the White House abruptly squelched an earlier EPA attempt to tighten the ozone rule, a move that greens still regard as one of the great betrayals of Obama’s presidency.

David Baron, the managing attorney with Earthjustice, called the standard “weak-kneed” and “a betrayal of the Clean Air Act’s promise of healthy air.” He said it is likely his group and other environmentalists would sue.

“Lowering the smog standard … is a modest step in the right direction, but it doesn’t go far enough to protect the millions of Americans living in communities with dangerously high levels of smog pollution,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune. (Read more from “Obama’s New Ozone Standard Has Green Groups Seeing Red” HERE)

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