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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.
Given the factory will be in neighboring state I would say Illinois doesn't really get the benefits (taxes etc) and gets all the bad stuff as pollution doesn't care about borders
So Wisconsin, where the plant actually is, was fine with it, to the point of cutting their taxes on revenue from the plant to encourage it to be built, but I guess since Illinois isn't going to see much revenue from it, they want to line up to stop it, instead?
(BTW, in case you wondered, like I did, Racine County ends about 6-8 miles from the Illinois border. The plant location itself is about 15 miles away.)
So still curious, I took a look at the WI site for air quality and Racine, as well as the County between it an Illinois, looks fine. Even if you go to the highest ozone level report, it's still maxing out at 47ppb. So it may have hit 70 at some point (Summer is usually worse), but it's probably not a frequent occurrence that it's up there. Certainly nothing to shut down a plant hiring 3k -13k workers over. I notice none of the articles attempt to quantify what, if any, difference the plant will make to ozone levels.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
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.
I can create millions of jobs for you if you just give me a small labour law exemption.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
A company is moving in to exploit your cheap labor with a special license to pollute from the government, while your leader is a grade-A supercrook and mostly just his political opposition cares about that fact. Welcome to the third world USA, after much effort you've finally made it. A complementary basket of rusty VW beetles, oil barrels and discarded tires will be sent in the mail.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
"Chicago and most of the nation's other big urban areas have been on the list for years."
They already have, for years. No reason to leave Racine county off the list when it's already in non-attainment before the first shovel hits Foxconn's new grounds.
The EPA has turned into the Environmental Polluting Agency and this is a feature, not a bug.
This dyslexic conspiracy theorist puts his hat on, backwards.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
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?
That's... convoluted. Another way to read her position is: "I oppose pollution."
If a Chicago politician really wanted to reduce ozone levels in that part of Wisconsin, they would push for Chicago area polluters to reduce pollution. In fact, Chicago is also an ozone nonattainment area; she could challenge that in court. She isn't doing that.
Also, it's beyond stupid to say that every other county in the nation follows those regulations. Chicago doesn't. NYC doesn't. Itty bitty Indian tribes and bands don't. The list of nonattainment areas is as long as your arm.
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).
Go ahead, sue, sue until Foxconn moves to other places, taking with it the job opportunities for people living in the area
The jobs are not important. The plant will not employ many people to begin with, and it will employ even less in short order since Foxconn is a leader in automation.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
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
Um, as you yourself wrote, the EPA?
"Tuesday's announcement was a shift from the EPA's stance in December when it determined a much broader area of southeastern Wisconsin failed to meet ozone standards.
At that time, the EPA declared Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington and Racine counties in violation. The same was true for northern Door County and Kenosha County east of I-94. The EPA also found that areas near the shoreline of Sheboygan and Manitowoc counties in violation."
And in case you missed it in the final rule:
Oddly an almost contigious non-attainment area simply skips Racine county, because air pollution totally does that.
But I'm sure that the chage versus the recommendation was totally data-driven. Have fun in court.
Maybe you should read the letter from the EPA to Wisconsin, which makes it clear that they never declared Racine County to be in nonattainment.
As for what air pollution does, it also doesn't follow county boundaries, but that is by far the most common way that the EPA declares which areas need to use stricter emissions controls. Prevailing winds might carry Chicago's pollution farther north rather than sending it ashore in Racine County. The bit to the south of Racine is part of Milwaukee, which can obviously produce quite a bit of its own smog.
If I went to court for this case, it would only be so I could laugh at Madigan when the judge throws the case out and ask how much taxpayers money she wasted on a futile political stunt.