Wisconsin, along with several other states, filed a brief Friday to oppose current Environmental Protection Agency ozone emission standards.
The brief, co-authored by Wisconsin Solicitor General Misha Tseytlin and Deputy Solicitor General Luke Berg, requests that recent amendments to National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone be vacated.
In October, the EPA tightened regulations on ozone emissions. Limits on allowed ambient air concentration were set to 70 parts per billion, down from the previous 75 parts-per-billion in effect since 2008.
NAAQS are federally imposed and each state is responsible for achieving national requirements. An area failing to meet official air quality standards is declared a “nonattainment area” and is expected to take prompt action in reducing emission amounts. Nonattainment areas may also lose forms of federal financing.
Also included on the filed brief are Arizona, Kentucky, New Mexico, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah and Texas.
States argue that new ozone NAAQS violate the Clean Air Act and were constructed through unconstitutional delegation of power. Additionally, legitimacy of the EPA’s scientific justification for new standards is questioned.
“This is surprising because the state of Wisconsin has a history of being conscious of the well-being of its people, but this seems to be in conflict with that long-standing tradition in this great state,” said Calvin B. Dewitt, a professor at UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
Dewitt said the new EPA regulations could dramatically improve air quality.
“Every medical organization that has to do with breathing wants it to be much lower than is even proposed,” Dewitt said. “If ozone concentrations were at 60 parts-per-billion in the US we could prevent up to 7900 premature deaths, we would reduce asthma attacks by 1.8 million and we would save 1.9 million missed school days. Those are very important ways to look at it. That takes a human point of view. We’re kids, we’re college students, we’re professors, we’re workers, and this is going to affect us.”
The U.S. Department of Justice has until late July to file opposition to the states’ opening brief.
