Carper criticizes Pruitt’s plans to change NAAQS review process

The US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s Ranking Minority Member strongly criticized Environmental Protection Agency Administrator E. Scott Pruitt’s plans to adopt a “back to basics” process for reviewing the federal Clean Air Act’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards (OGJ Online, May 10, 2018).

“Just last week, after being compelled by the courts, Mr. Pruitt’s EPA begrudgingly submitted ozone nonattainment designations under the NAAQS program – a full six months after they were required by law,” Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) said on May 10. “Today’s decision by EPA undermines the science-based review process for the NAAQS, and it is just one more attempt by Mr. Pruitt to avoid performing EPA’s basic duty to ensure clean air for every American.”

Congress clearly intended that the NAAQS process would use the best available science to protect public health, he continued. “Mr. Pruitt’s decision today to undermine that science-based process fails to live up to the letter of the law. Instead, these changes are a thinly veiled effort to inject politics into what has always been a health- and science-based review process,” Carper declared.

“Crafted without any meaningful review of public health data to evaluate the real-life impacts, Mr. Pruitt is once again making life-altering decisions that benefit his lobbyist and industry friends, at the expense of the health of the American people,” he said.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].