DEP proposes less smog regulation
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection wants to pull back anti-smog regulations, a move it says will allow businesses like sawmills, pellet manufacturers and paper mills to expand without getting carbon emissions offsets.
The Portland Press Herald reported the DEP published a notice of the proposal for a comment period that ends today.
The proposal calls for new state exemptions from portions of the federal Clean Air Act that govern ground-level ozone pollution. Maine is part of a 13-state group that has agreed to common pollution standards and limits. The DEP argues that because all areas of the state now meet federal ozone standards and because Maine-generated pollution does not move downwind to other states, Maine should not be required to meet the restrictions on other states in the Northeast.
Marc Cone, head of the DEP’s air bureau under Commissioner Patricia Aho, told the paper that the EPA collaborated on the changes that he said will help businesses in the state. Ron Severance, a former director of the DEP’s air bureau, told the paper that the suggested policy change is short-sighted and that more stringent EPA regulations now in the works could change the status of some Maine counties.
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments