Environmentalists Press EPA For Tougher Secondary Air Standards Plan

Environmentalists are again urging EPA to set much tougher “secondary,” or welfare-based, national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), charging that the agency’s proposal that makes only minor changes to existing limits without requiring any additional emissions cuts from industry is “unlawful” and “irrational.” “Distinct and unique” secondary NAAQS “are increasingly necessary from those set only to protect human health as natural ecosystems are bearing the brunt of the harm of cumulative exposures to air pollution both through deposition and direct,...