Senate Bill Would Force EPA To Improve How It Administers Air Quality Standards

Last month, a group of Republican senators led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) introduced the National Ambient Air Quality Standards Implementation Act of 2023, which, if signed into law, would improve how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) program under the Clean Air Act. Under the NAAQS program, the EPA sets standards for six pollutants, including ground-level ozone and particulate matter.

As Connecting the Dots readers may recall, earlier this year the EPA published a proposed revision to the air standards on particulate matter known as PM2.5 that would make the standard for particulate matter more stringent. Unfortunately, in doing so the EPA seemingly did not take into account the proposed rule’s technological or economic feasibility.

Additionally, the proposed regulation, if implemented, would be likely to raise consumer and business costs. Read more about the proposal here.

To avoid situations like this in the future, Sen. Capito’s bill would change the mandatory review of NAAQS from every five to every 10 years, authorize the EPA to consider technological feasibility in establishing NAAQS, and ensure that for certain ozone and particulate matter nonattainment areas, states are not required to include economically infeasible measures in their plans used to enforce NAAQS.

Sen. Capito’s bill is co-sponsored by Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).