Ozone Standard Threatens Arkansas (Feedback)

(EPA)

TO THE EDITOR:

I read with great concern recent coverage of a new study by the National Association of Manufacturers regarding the EPA’s pending revisions to its ozone standard and what this regulation might mean for our state. I see little chance of Arkansas communities meeting the standard under consideration by the EPA, and this means big trouble for business and consumers alike.

I am the executive director of the Arkansas Environmental Federation, a nonprofit that encompasses more than 200 businesses throughout our state. We assist these businesses as they navigate the minefield of environmental regulations and red tape that they encounter on a daily basis. Our member companies understand that to compete globally they must operate as efficiently as possible, which means maximizing energy efficiency and minimizing waste. However, unachievable regulations such as the proposed ozone standard threaten even the most efficient business.

How does the government expect the companies we advise to comply with a regulation when the agency pushing the rule sees no path toward meeting its standard? And that’s just the case when it comes to the revised ozone standard, given that the EPA can identify only about one-third of the emission-control technologies that will be needed to meet its standard. The rest of the reductions that will be necessary to meet the agency’s standard are left to “unknown controls” — a euphemism for technologies that don’t yet exist.

That means the only way to meet the standard is by scrapping or shuttering facilities, taking vehicles off the road and sending the economic activity and jobs that our state needs elsewhere. This is not effective rulemaking, and it stands to cost our state hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs.

While the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality is working diligently to find measures to mitigate the impact of the tight ozone standard, the concern from organizations like mine and the businesses I represent is that we simply won’t be able to do enough to stave off the damage the change will create for everyday Arkansans.

The Arkansas Environmental Federation shares the EPA’s goal of cleaner air and water — as do our members. But unachievable regulations like the tightened ozone standard fail to advance that goal and cause tremendous harm to our economy in the process.

Charles M. Miller
Little Rock