Washington, DC – Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson today commended the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which released draft rules to tighten air quality standards this morning.  The rules proposed by the Obama administration would lower the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ground-level ozone to 0.060-0.070 parts per million (ppm), down from the Bush administration’s standard of 0.075 ppm.

“By proposing to implement tougher standards on ozone-forming pollutants, the Obama administration is demonstrating its commitment to environmental protection and public health,” Congresswoman Johnson.  “I applaud the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to tighten the lax regulations that were put into place by the prior administration.”

In 2007, Congresswoman Johnson successfully added an amendment to the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill that halted an attempt by the Bush administration to weaken the Clean Air Act.  In the 111th Congress, she has introduced the Mercury Emissions Reduction Act, which will amend the Clean Air Act to make coal-fired electric power plants subject to the most rigorous mercury emissions standard under the Clean Air Act, the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standard. 

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U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson is the highest-ranking Texan on the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure and a senior member of the Science Committee. She represents the 30th Congressional District of Texas, which, includes Downtown Dallas, Fair Park, Oak Lawn, Old East Dallas, Pleasant Grove, & South Oak Cliff; all of Balch Springs, DeSoto, Hutchins, Lancaster & Wilmer and parts of Cedar Hill, Duncanville, Ferris, Glenn Heights and Ovilla.