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Illinois To Sue EPA For Exempting Foxconn Plant From Pollution Controls (reuters.com)
Last week, Reuters reported that "Illinois' Attorney General said she plans to sue the EPA for allowing a proposed Foxconn plant in neighboring Wisconsin to operate without stringent pollution controls." From the report: On Tuesday, the EPA identified 51 areas in 22 states that do not meet federal air quality requirements for ozone, a step toward enforcing the standards issued in 2015. An exempted area was Racine County, Wisconsin, just north of the Illinois border that is known to have heavily polluted air, where Taiwan-based Foxconn is building a $10 billion liquid-crystal display plant. Pollution monitoring data show the county's ozone levels exceed the 70 parts per billion (ppb) limit. If Racine County had been designated a "non-attainment" area, it would have required Foxconn to install stringent pollution control equipment.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan said she would file a lawsuit in the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the EPA's ozone designations, saying its failure to name Racine County a "non-attainment" area puts people at risk. "Despite its name, the Environmental Protection Agency now operates with total disregard for the quality of our air and water, and in this case, the U.S. EPA is putting a company's profit ahead of our natural resources and the public's health," Madigan said in a statement.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan said she would file a lawsuit in the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the EPA's ozone designations, saying its failure to name Racine County a "non-attainment" area puts people at risk. "Despite its name, the Environmental Protection Agency now operates with total disregard for the quality of our air and water, and in this case, the U.S. EPA is putting a company's profit ahead of our natural resources and the public's health," Madigan said in a statement.
She is. Whew, glad she meets your approval. It'd be a shame if she did one thing to protect the people of her state without also doing every other thing you can think of first.
You mean, no reason beyond the fact that high levels of ozone are a health threat, so that adding to already high levels of ozone increases the health threat, and local sources of ozone generating emissions will have an even greater impact upon ozone levels that remote sources of such emissions.
You mean, it's hypocritical to expect Wisconsin to follow the Clean Air Act, which requires controls whether or not those emissions are local or imported, merely because every other county in the U.S. has to follow that law.
You mean that a plant located within 5 miles of the shore (something about a need to divert 6 millions gallons of water per day from Lake Michigan for industrial use, in violation of the Great Lakes Compact) is not within "an extremely narrow band that follows Wisconsin's shoreline."
Fine. You can argue all of that. In court.
The county cannot meet the standards currently, mostly because of pollution from elsewhere (like Chicago) that is carried to the county by wind. Since the EPA started regulating ozone levels in 1979, at least one county in that part of Wisconsin has been a "nonattainment region" for the same reason. Why should a business in Wisconsin have to install expensive equipment to limit pollution when the problem is caused by polluters in other states?
Argue with facts now. Racine county has less than 25 non-attainment hours a year, due entirely from emissions from Chicagoland. And that water you claim will be "diverted" does not magically disappear. It gets treated to remove the mild detergent and returned to the ecosystem. And, nothing about the exemption proves anything about the emissions of the plant.
Do you have any data, at all, about ozone emissions expected from this plant, or did you just repeat what you were told to scream about.
No it's beyond stupid that, once again, I must point out that Chicago is a listed non-attainment area (and does follow non-attainment regulations, thank you), that Racine is in non-attainment yet was delisted as non-attainment area this year (and so will not be following those regulations, again thank you), and that you are confusing whether or not a county is in attainment with whether or not new development must employ ozone precursor emission controls.
From TFA: "Pollution monitoring data show the county's ozone levels exceed the 70 parts per billion (ppb) limit. If Racine County had been designated a âoenon-attainmentâ area, it would have required Foxconn to install stringent pollution control equipment."
You've admitted yourself that Chicago is listed as a non-attainment area. Please, provide any evidence that Chicago does not follow non-attainment area regulations. I'll wait.
Because the point is to reduce ozone non-attainment and prevent a race to the bottom where (oddly enough, Republican) states and counties disregard non-attainment so as to minimize environmental compliance costs while inflicting externalities such as respiratory disease deaths on their own citizens and those of surrounding states/counties. Non-attainment areas must work to reduce ozone precursor emissions themselves and minimize new sources of ozone precursor emissions with enhanced controls -- not merely blame their non-attainment on neighboring areas and go on their merry way.
If you don't like the way that the CAA operates, then build the political coalition necessary to change it. Until then, comply with the requirements of the CAA or face suit in court.
Not a shutdown. From TFA: "Pollution monitoring data show the county's ozone levels exceed the 70 parts per billion (ppb) limit. If Racine County had been designated a 'non-attainment' area, it would have required Foxconn to install stringent pollution control equipment."
Also, not particularly invested in your personal conclusion of attainment after having glanced at a one day, Spring season ozone report. Also from TFA: "The EPA, under Administrator Scott Pruitt, left Racine County off its non-attainment list despite an agency staff analysis of ozone levels in Wisconsin published in December, which found that the county's air exceeded federal ozone limits." We call that "arbitrary and capricious agency action" in my neck of the woods, and it's a good basis for a court suit.
Install the pollution controls required in a non-attainment area, and magically the suit goes away and the plant can run. Don't, and get sued.
Notice that the one thing not happening here is Wisconsin suing Illinois for failing to install ozone precursor emission controls in Illinois' developments.
When the Australian government gave everyone $900 it managed to be the only western country exposed to the 2008 financial crisis that not only avoided a recession, but actually experienced growth during it.
Imagine Wisconsin simply giving everyone $1700. I'm sure it would be a much better for the economy of the state than creating 10000 low wage jobs (as laughable as that figure actually is).
Jobs are important, but not at the expense of the health of citizens and the environment. The EPA has stopped doing its job during this White House administration