EPA to enforce 2008 smog rules

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said Thursday that EPA will soon advise states on implementation of 2008 ozone standards, a move that follows the recent White House decision to shelve tougher rules that EPA had planned to impose.

“EPA will be notifying states in the days ahead of the path forward in implementing those [2008] standards,” Jackson said at a hearing of an Energy and Commerce Committee panel.

“We will do it in a commonsense way, minimizing the burden on state and local governments,” Jackson said.

The Bush administration imposed an ozone standard of 75 parts per billion, which is weaker than the agency’s formal science advisers had recommended.

Those 2008 rules had been held in abeyance while the Obama administration's EPA crafted tougher rules, so the 1997 standard of 84 parts-per-billion is still in place.

The White House early this month scuttled EPA’s plan to finalize more stringent standards, which deeply disappointed environmental groups. The administration plans to issue a new ozone proposal in 2013.

This post was updated at 3:03 p.m.