L.A. activists push EPA to heighten ozone regulations

Activists in Washington, D.C., rally to show support of proposed EPA rules that will strengthen smog rules.

You have until March 17 to comment on the EPA's Proposal to Revise Ozone Standards. The Sierra Club urges all to tead up on the issue below and then make sure your voice is heard. Click here to make your comments online.

Sierra Club's Mary Anne Hitt reports on other EPA hearings around the country.

Since the 1970s, the EPA has curbed local air pollution throughout the country with some success. Despite those triumphs, the Los Angeles metro area still has the most polluted air in the United States. And the rest of California doesn’t fare much better: it’s estimated that the top five worst regions for smog lie in the Golden State.

With the health of millions at risk, the EPA put forward a plan last November to strengthen the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone emissions. Most of us know that particular form of pollution as smog. The proposed rule draws on extensive research into smog’s many public health drawbacks. These include:

• thousands of premature deaths statewide are attributable to smog intake;
• cases of asthma, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory illness numbering in the millions, are caused or exacerbated by urban emissions;
• billions of dollars in health care charges are used to treat respiratory symptoms instead of strengthening California’s economy; and
• health and quality-of-life impacts disproportionally affect low-income communities and children of color.

The new ozone rule will require polluters (from the transportation sector in particular) to further limit what they let into our air. Predictably, it has met significant opposition from the fossil fuels industry, which opposes the technological innovations enabling decreased emissions.

As residents of Los Angeles, we have enormous cause to support any air quality measure this far-reaching. That’s why a group of Sierra Club members and concerned citizens took an all-day bus trip up to Sacramento in February to testify before the EPA in support of better regulation.

The Sierra Club organized an extensive presence at three public hearings on the new rule: Washington D.C. and Arlington, Texas on Jan. 29 and Sacramento on Feb. 3. We needed to demonstrate that the public thoroughly backs the EPA’s proposal, and that we cannot ignore transportation’s impact on our air.

Personal stories tell the bigger consequenses of dirty air

Just about everyone from the Los Angeles delegation testified. Stories ranged from personal accounts of sickness to political and historical appeals. But they all acknowledged that the EPA wields some of the best tools to cut pollution across this state. We need to make sure it puts those tools to use.

A diverse community of interests is crucial to that effort. Last Monday, numerous dedicated activists joined the Sierra Club for a rally in Cesar Chavez Plaza Park, adjacent to the California EPA building. Residents of the Golden State since the 1950s joined high school students at the podium to address this multi-generational challenge.

I delivered my testimony before the EPA panel right after students from Desert Mirage High School in Thermal, Calif. After hearing from lobbyists paid to represent the fossil fuels industry, the panel members were pleasantly surprised at the size and volume of our group. One of them expressed, with gusto, his admiration for those of us who endured the bus ride from Southern California.

But the fight to get this measure through didn’t end in Sacramento. The EPA allows public comment on proposed regulations through its website, which can be found at its website under "How to Comment:" http://www.epa.gov/groundlevelozone/how-to-comment.html

Click here for the text of the rule and more information on the EPA's website.