In a rare move, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake introduced S. 2514, the Ozone Regulatory Delay and Extension of Assessment Length (ORDEAL) Act, which Flake says will ensure a more certain regulatory environment for state air-quality agencies and businesses.
The bill would extend the EPA’s existing timeline to review and revise National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and air quality criteria from five-year intervals to 10-year intervals. To ensure that the standard for ozone is also on this more realistic 10-year cycle, the bill would also prohibit the EPA from finalizing, implementing or enforcing a revised ozone standard until 2018.
“Clean air and economic growth are not mutually exclusive,” said Flake. “This bill would ensure a more certain regulatory environment that would allow businesses to protect much-needed jobs while ensuring that the Clean Air Act does exactly what it was designed to do – protect the public’s health.”
The ORDEAL Act is the first of three bills Flake will introduce during a weeklong effort to highlight federal air regulatory overreach in Arizona.
Under the Clean Air Act (CAA), the EPA is required to review air quality standards for certain air pollutants in five-year intervals and revise those standards if doing so is necessary to ensure the public’s health. However, the complex nature of NAAQS reviews and limited agency resources more often than not result in the EPA’s failure to meet the statutory five-year deadline.
According to a statement released by Flake’s office, special-interest groups routinely take advantage of the EPA’s inability to meet these statutory timelines by suing the agency for violating the CAA. To settle these lawsuits, the EPA often agrees to set a much stricter standard than is necessary under the law, resulting in onerous air-quality regulations that force counties to adopt compliance plans that threaten to economically cripple manufactures, farmers and other industries while delivering little, if any, additional health benefits. This process is often referred to as “sue and settle.” Such is the case with the proposed standard for ozone – also the result of a special interest group lawsuit – which the EPA’s own estimate indicates will cost between $25 billion and $90 billion per year.
The ORDEAL Act is supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; National Associations of Manufacturers; Arizona Farm Bureau Federation; National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association; National Cattlemen’s Beef Association; Arizona Cattle Feeders’ Association; Arizona Cattlemen’s Association; American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers; National Mining Association; American Petroleum Institute; and the American Chemistry Council.