Earlier this week, the EPA rolled back some guidelines from the Clean Air Act. Arizona state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, like Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly and Republican Maricopa County Supervisor Thomas Galvin, have pushed for the move.
Galvin said they’re keenly aware of what he calls the science behind why, adding that, “On the whole, most people are in favor of what we're doing.”
“We've reduced as much as we can,” said Galvin, “but there's still some ozone levels that are higher than the threshold. But what we learned is that they're due to something called international transport, which means pollution either coming from Latin America or from Asia is flying over here. And due to our climate and topography, it's staying here. There's nothing we can do about it.”
Galvin said that in his eyes, while there’s nothing wrong with what he calls good, sensible air quality regulation, the previous guidelines hurt the economy by enforcing certain pollution standards in Arizona.
“When we see rules that are completely nonsensical and are harming us and are done for arbitrary reasons,” he said, “then it's incumbent upon me to serve my constituents to make sure that I'm fighting on behalf of them.”
Next steps, said Galvin, include talking to the EPA about offsets, emission reduction credits, permitting relief, and support for a ground-level ozone research project.
