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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

CA Groups Pressure Feds to Tighten Air-Quality Standards

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Monday, February 27, 2023   

The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing new rules on soot in order to clean up the nation's air.

Advocates say while it is a step in the right direction, it does not go far enough. The current rules allow 12 micrograms per cubic meter. The EPA wants to take it down to nine or 10, but clean-air groups want it lowered to eight.

Monica Embrey, California energy campaign director for the Sierra Club, said a standard of eight micrograms would save 24,000 lives a year.

"Soot is a deadly mix of metals, chemicals and substances that are so small, they can be inhaled into our lungs and enter into our bloodstreams," Embrey pointed out. "Which can cause a host of different health issues, including respiratory diseases, cancers and death."

The fine particulate matter can trigger asthma comes from things like vehicle exhaust, heavy industry, oil and gas sites, wildfire smoke, and blowing dust. The Trump administration overrode scientific recommendations and left the standard unchanged. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said tighter standards would stifle manufacturing and hurt the economy. The agency is taking public comment through the end of March.

Patrick Drupp, director of climate policy for the Sierra Club, said the World Health Organization has called for an even lower standard, of five.

"We have the solutions to address it, we have scientific evidence to address it. We have all the moral imperative to address it," Drupp stressed. "This is something they really have to do to ensure that people actually are breathing clean air."

Tens of millions of Californians live in counties already exceeding the existing air-quality standard, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties in Southern California; Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced and Tulare counties in the Central Valley; and Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties in the Bay Area.

Disclosure: The Sierra Club contributes to our fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, Energy Policy, Environment, and Environmental Justice. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


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