Americans Choke While Obama Courts Votes, Activists Charge

Clean-air activists in President Obama's home state were ready when his Environmental Protection Agency announced today it would follow a 2008 clean-air standard set by the Bush Administration.
Environment Illinois released a report claiming Chicagoans breathed dangerous air for 10 days in the summer of 2010 and for 15 days this summer. Residents of the St. Louis area inhaled unhealthy levels of pollution for 23 days those summers, according to Danger in the Air: Unhealthy Air Days in 2010 and 2011.
But the report holds air to a stricter standard than the EPA will.
It considers air unhealthy that falls short of a standard recommended by the EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee—that is, a primary ozone level of 60 to 70 parts per billion.
"Here we reaffirm that the evidence from controlled human and epidemiological studies strongly supports the selection of a new primary ozone standard within the 60 – 70 ppb range for an 8-hour averaging time," the scientists wrote.
EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson told members of Congress today that she herself prefers a standard of 70 ppb.
But the EPA will follow the Bush-era standard of 75 ppb until at least 2013, she said. The announcement was not unexpected since President Obama said earlier this month he would postpone stricter air regulation until after the 2012 election.
In 2008, the Bush EPA lowered the ozone standard to 75 from 84 ppb.
The Riverside-San Bernadino area in Southern California fares the worst under the stricter standard favored by Environment Illinois and the EPA science advisors:
"Riverside-San Bernardino, CA ranked as the smoggiest metropolitan area in the country with 110 smog days," the report states, "meaning that the area, home to more than 3 million residents, had unhealthy air on one out of three days in 2010."