In Texas, Resistance Over Stricter U.S. Smog Limits

quarter 2

article 5

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/science/earth/03smog.html

NY times

Miller chapter 19

The area covered is national.

Environmentalist met with Texas state officials on Thursday at a hearing on the Obama administration’s proposal to tighten standards for smog-producing pollutants, a change that could improve the health of millions but would impose burdensome costs on industry and local governments. The hearing, before a panel of federal environmental officials, was one of three being held around the country on the proposed new standards, which would replace those set by the Bush administration in March 2008. Those standards, which set the limit for ozone at 75 parts per billion, ignored the advice of a panel of scientists advising the Environmental Protection Agency

and have been challenged in court as too weak. The proposed lower standards also drew fire from manufacturers and oil and gas companies, who fear they will bear the brunt of the costs of cutting down the volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides that cause smog.

I think that it is important to set new standards that integrate the advice from the Environmental Protection Agency. I also think that manufacturers and oil and gas companies will have to abide by these rules and bear the costs. The environment has to come before industry. Economic times in the United States will eventually make a recovery. However, when the environment becomes depleted, it is much more difficult to get it back.

Vocabulary-

Smog- forms when emissions from industry and other sources are exposed to sunlight.