Advocacy News – March 24, 2023
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is charged with Environmental stewardship that balances regulations concerning natural resources, human health, economic growth, industry, and international trade. Unfortunately, that approach not reflected in the Agency’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) PM2.5 proposal. On January 6, 2023, EPA announced that is was issuing a proposed rule to lower the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (“NAAQS”) for fine particulate matter (“PM2.5”), also referred to as soot. The current primary annual NAAQS for PM2.5 is 12 micrograms per cubic meter. EPA’s proposal will accept comments on reducing that annual NAAQS to a level between 9 and 10.
The concerns to this proposed bill are many. There are still areas of the U.S. that are in nonattainment of the current NAAQS PM2.5 standards and further tightening these standards to the levels contemplated in the EPA’s proposed rule would greatly expand the number of nonattainment areas, including a significant part of Michigan. Businesses in our state would have to spend millions of dollars annually to comply with the revised regulations, and permitting delays and cancellations would stifle infrastructure projects and facility expansions, which would harm businesses up and down our supply chains that are just now rebounding from the disruptions caused by the pandemic. Additionally, nonattainment designations would have a deleterious impact on our state’s industrial operations and require expensive retrofits and emission offset credits.
Furthermore, the vast majority of PM2.5 emissions, over 84 percent, now come from non-point sources such as wildfires and road dust. These non-point emission sources are much more difficult for individual states and regions to control. By contrast, only 16 percent of PM2.5 emissions come from industrial sources and power plants, with further improvements likely with the implementation of existing laws and as cleaner energy sources continue to come online.
In response, the MI Chamber submitted testimony that rejected the proposal and called on the EPA to maintain current standards. As this issue continues to play out, the MI Chamber will also be engaging the Michigan Congressional Delegation to encourage legislative action in Washington as well.
For more information, please contact Mike Alaimo at malaimo@michamber.com