Washington—Senators Evan Bayh (D-IN) and George V. Voinovich (R-OH), along with five of their Senate colleagues, authored  a bipartisan letter to Administrator Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding ozone standards. 

The letter calls on Administrator Jackson to reconsider EPA’s recent decision to revisit its previously announced National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone. Given the lack of new scientific data or evidence to justify the agency’s course of action, the senators urged Administrator Jackson to retain the existing standards.

EPA projects the cost of its revised standards to families and workers will be as high as $90 billion annually, compounding the hardships many Hoosiers are facing in these difficult economic times.

“Given the absence of new or different scientific data, EPA should maintain the current ozone standards, which EPA finalized only two years ago and concluded were adequately protective of public health and welfare with an adequate margin of safety. Moving to change the standard again, outside of the Clean Air Act’s normal 5-year review process, as local communities are struggling to meet the existing standard would be unfair and unwise,” the senators wrote in the letter.

The letter adds to mounting opposition from local, state and national elected officials, labor unions, businesses, and state environmental agencies to EPA’s action.

The bipartisan letter was also signed by Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), David Vitter (R-LA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and Kit Bond (R-MO).

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