EPA Set to Release Stricter National Ozone Standard in What Some Fear Could Be the 'Costliest Regulation in History

Update: The Environmental Protection Agency did officially set the new ozone standard at 70 parts per billion.

“Put simply – ozone pollution means it hurts to breathe for those most vulnerable: our kids, our elderly and those suffering from heart and lung ailments,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement. “Our job is to set science-backed standards that protect the health of the American people. Today’s action is one of the most important measures we can take for improving public health, reducing the costs of illness and protecting our children’s health.”

—

WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) -- The Obama administration is tightening limits on the smog-forming pollution that's linked to asthma and respiratory illness — setting a new national ozone standard of 70 parts per billion.

Officials familiar with the plan but not authorized to speak on the record say the Environmental Protection Agency will come out with the new rules later Thursday, meeting a court-ordered deadline.

Despite making the standard more strict than the current 75 parts per billion, some environmentalists are still not pleased.

This April 28, 2009 file photo shows smog covering downtown Los Angeles. (AP/Nick Ut)

The new standard, if set officially at 70 parts per billion, would be at the high end of a range announced by the EPA last fall, which set the low end at 65 parts per billion and asked for public comment on 60 parts per billion.

Watch the EPA's video:

The move fulfills a long-delayed campaign promise by President Barack Obama. And it sets up a fresh confrontation with congressional Republicans already angry about the administration's plans to curb carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants and regulate small streams and wetlands.

Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) wrote in a piece for The Hill that these standards could be "the costliest regulation in history, imposing new standards that are overly burdensome, technically unattainable and deficiently demonstrative of providing any environmental or public health benefits."

Smog from an inversion hangs over the Utah State Capitol Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, in Salt Lake City. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has singled out the greater Salt Lake region as having the nation's worst air for much of January, when an icy fog smothers mountain valleys for days or weeks at a time and traps lung-busting soot. (AP/Rick Bowmer)

The Wall Street Journal has more on the cost element:

The standard the EPA is announcing Thursday is estimated to have a compliance cost of $3.9 billion a year by 2025, according to estimates the EPA issued when the rules were first proposed late last year. The EPA at the time said the limit also would yield public-health benefits valued between $6.4 billion and $13 billion a year by 2025.

Current law prohibits the EPA from considering cost when deciding the standard, instead requiring the agency to look strictly at the latest science. But Mr. Obama told business leaders last month he would ensure the public-health benefits outweighed the cost.

“We don’t issue a regulation where the costs are not lower than the benefits,” Mr. Obama said at a Sept. 16 meeting with the trade group Business Roundtable.

Environmentalists, on the other hand, like David Baron, an attorney at Earthjustice, told the Washington Examiner "setting the standard at 70 parts per billion would be nothing short of a betrayal of the Clean Air Act's promise of healthy air."

Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association, agreed, telling the Associated Press that the "level chosen of 70 parts per billion simply does not reflect what the science shows is necessary to truly protect public health." This association and other health groups believe a standard of 60 parts per billion would provide the most protections.