The Trump EPA is threatening to sanction California because of its lack of compliance with federal clean air standards, the latest salvo in its multipronged attack on the Golden State over climate change.
In a letter released yesterday to the California Air Resources Board, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler threatened to revoke federal highway funds in retaliation for the state's halting compliance with the Clean Air Act.
The EPA chief wrote that the state had the "worst air quality in the United States" and had "failed to carry out its most basic tasks" under the bedrock environmental law.
The Clean Air Act requires states to submit state implementation plans — commonly known as SIPs — outlining their efforts to comply with federal ambient air quality standards for ozone, particulate matter and four other criteria pollutants.
In what apparently is first-of-its-kind research, scientists say air pollution can be the equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes - and if you already smoke, it is the equivalent of another packs. The study is important enough that it was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. JAMA has long been an arbiter of what is important in health research.
When asked about climate change, President Trump often shifts the focus to America’s “clean air.” “We have the cleanest air in the world in the United States and it’s gotten better since I’m president,” he said again this month while meeting with Prime Minister Leo Varadkar of Ireland. America’s air is much cleaner than it used to be, but it’s still not “the cleanest.” And recent data suggests that air pollution is ticking back up.
The Cayuga Power Plant in Lansing will end its coal operations and reopen as a data storage center if all goes according to company plans. At a Lansing Town Board meeting Wednesday, supervisor Ed LaVigne circulated a memo from the Cayuga Operating Company announcing that the company intends to transition from being a power producer to a power consumer.
In the future, police and crime prevention units may begin to monitor the levels of pollution in their cities, and deploy resources to the areas where pollution is heaviest on a given day.
This may sound like the plot of a science fiction movie, but recent findings suggest that this may well be a worthwhile practice.
Why? Emerging studies show that air pollution is linked to impaired judgement, mental health problems, poorer performance in school and most worryingly perhaps, higher levels of crime.
With a planned effective date of January 1, 2020, the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) new regulations (IMO 2020) limit the sulfur content in marine fuels that ocean-going vessels use to 0.5% by weight, a reduction from the previous limit of 3.5% established in 2012. The IMO adopted the plan for this policy change in 2008, and in 2016 reaffirmed an implementation date of 2020. The change in sulfur limits has wide-ranging repercussions for the global refining and shipping industries as well for petroleum supply, demand, trade flows, and prices. The shipping and refining industries have already begun making preparations and investments to varying degrees to accommodate IMO 2020 regulations. As the implementation date for the 0.5% sulfur cap approaches, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects that shifts in petroleum product pricing may begin as early as mid-to-late 2019. EIA anticipates that the effects on petroleum prices will be most acute in 2020, and the effects on prices will be moderate after that. However, the regulations will affect petroleum supply, demand, and trade flows on a more long-term basis.