EPA Will Not Revisit Obama-Era NAAQS for Ozone
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not intend to revisit national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone that the Obama administration issued in 2015, a court filing shows.
The agency said in its final status report submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on August 1 that it has reviewed the 2015 rule governing state-implementation of primary and secondary NAAQS for ozone—also known as smog—from mobile or stationary sources, but “determined that at this time, EPA does not intend to revisit the 2015 Rule.”
The 2015 ozone rule tightened limits of ozone from 0.075 parts per million (ppm) of ozone averaged over eight hours, as set by the Bush administration in March 2008, to 0.070 ppm. The rule, which followed a proposal to revise standards to a range of 0.065 ppm to 0.070 ppm, drew ire from both industry and environmental groups. It was challenged in federal court.
According to an “Air Trend” data set that the Environmental Protection Agency released this week, average ozone levels have declined 32% since 1980 and 22% since 1990.