June 2017

This week the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted along party lines to approve legislation that would weaken the EPA's ozone standard. The legislation, H.R 806, would delay implementation of EPA's 2015 ozone standard, while also delaying review and update of other EPA air quality standards like lead, particulate matter, mercury, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide.

The bill also expands the definition of "exceptional events" in a way that would allow states and cities to discard significant amounts of data on bad air days to mask the true population exposure to air pollution.

In committee hearings earlier this year, the ATS testified against the bill. The ATS recently joined a group sign-on letter opposing this legislation. The House of Representatives has passed similar legislation in previous Congressional sessions; as of yet, the bill has not progressed far in the Senate.

Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate, and the ATS participated in Senate hearings on the bill, strongly expressing our reservations to the Senate companion bill.