American Lung Association presses White House to set ozone deadline

The American Lung Association is pressing the White House to set a deadline for unveiling pending smog standards.

“It is long past time to complete this work,” the public health group said in a letter Thursday to White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley.

The Obama administration has delayed the pending ozone standards, which would tighten regulations issued by President George W. Bush in 2008, several times. The White House Office of Management and Budget is currently reviewing the standards.

The Environmental Protection Agency has said it will issue the updated standards “shortly,” but has not offered a specific deadline.

The delays have drawn the ire of public health and environmental groups, who say the standards threaten the health of millions of people every year.

“[M]llions of infants, children, older adults, and people with chronic diseases can’t avoid breathing smog,” the American Lung Association said in the letter. “They depend upon the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to follow the Clean Air Act and protect their health.”

Industry groups have mounted a campaign to scuttle the standards, arguing they will impose a major burden on the economy. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Petroleum Institute and others have lobbied the White House and EPA to delay updating the standards until at least 2013, the next mandatory review period under the Clean Air Act.