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Wednesday, September 25, 2019

EPA threatens California over backlog of 100-plus air quality plans

The Environmental Protection Agency is threatening to withhold highway funds and permitting approvals from California until the state agrees to redo more than 100 air quality plans.

California "has failed to carry out its most basic tasks under the Clean Air Act," EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler wrote in a Sept. 24 letter to the state's top air regulator, Mary Nichols. Wheeler said in the letter that California represents about a third of the air quality plans the EPA has in a backlog, neither approved nor denied, and some of those plans date back to pollution limits from the 1970s.

States are required to submit plans outlining how they'll meet federal air quality standards for pollutants such as ozone and particulate matter that contribute to smog and soot. The EPA then is supposed to approve or disapprove those plans.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So much for going green and clean from the conservation communists in California. They should clean up their own backyard first.

Anonymous said...

so the epa has been letting calif get away with this for over 40 years in some cases? it makes me wonder how many epa employees worked for the epa during those 40 years who eventually retired, collected a tax payer funded retirement even though they didn`t do their job by forcing calif to abide by federal law. I think the tax payers are due a 40 year refund for the tax money that has dumped into the epa for the last 40 years, obviously the tax payer didn`t get what they were paying for.