Upton, Whitfield blast EPA’s proposal to lower acceptable smog levels

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) made statements on Wednesday against the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed changes to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. 

The EPA’s proposal calls for ground-level ozone – also known as smog – to be dropped from 75 parts per billion to between 65 and 70 parts per billion. The EPA estimates the reduction could prevent up to 960,000 asthma attacks annually and reduce missed school days by up to 1 million across the country by 2025.

Upton sees the proposal as an attack on jobs and believes Congress can protect the environment without damaging the economy.

“In 2011, President (Barack) Obama rightly admitted that new regulations in this area could hurt jobs and our economy, and the White House directed EPA to withdraw its onerous proposed ozone rule,” Upton said. “It makes zero sense to now issue new guidelines that will only destroy jobs when the current standards still have not been fully implemented – the president would be doubling down on disaster.”

Whitfield said the proposal has the potential to be the most expensive and burdensome of a plethora of destructive rules to come from the EPA during Obama’s presidency.

“EPA is proposing to adopt new standards that could be nearly impossible to meet, especially for areas of the country still struggling to comply with the current ozone standard,” Whitfield said. “America shouldn’t take a backseat to anyone when it comes to our environment, but regulations need to be balanced and reasonable. EPA has not yet fully implemented the existing standard established in 2008, and stakeholders have raised concerns that benefits of further changes are uncertain while the costs are sure to be extreme.”