Another day, another lawsuit led by NY’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, this time suing the EPA for Midwest pollution being blown into Northeast states (from Reuters):
Eight northeastern states said on Tuesday they sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to force it to impose more stringent controls on a group of mostly Midwestern states whose air pollution they claim is being blown in their direction.
Listening to Schneiderman, you’d think NYC has become a veritable magnet for air pollution:
“Millions of New Yorkers are breathing unhealthy air as smog pollution continues to pour in from other states,” said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who led the coalition of states that filed the lawsuit dated Friday.
But are they really? What are the states with the highest ozone levels (pollution and particle pollution)? The American Lung Association ranks cities “based on ozone and particle pollution during 2013, 2014, and 2015” using the latest data from the EPA.
They also rank cities by short-term particulate matter (which comes from anything that combusts), ozone levels, and year-round particulate matter.
It shows NY-NJ-CT-PA had 28 FEWER high-ozone days since 1996. Contrary to what Schneiderman would have people believe, his state is actually getting cleaner thanks in large part to power plants switching to natural gas and cleaner burning coal (advanced scrubbers, carbon capture, etc.).
What’s missing from the chart? An increase in pollution in Northeast cities from all that so-called pollution being blown in across state lines.
None of the states suing the Trump administration are on all three lists, with NY-NJ-CT-PA only showing up at #9 under “Ozone.” In fact, almost every city in the four states listed showed a drop in ozone. And the particulate matter was exposed as a farce in Scare Pollution, something the EPA may find useful given its new policy not to sue and settle.
The lawsuit was filed by the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, which in late 2013 originally asked to have nine upwind states added to the “Ozone Transport Region.”
A thorn in the side of the Trump presidency, Schneiderman likes to rely on EPA studies under former EPA heads Gina McCarthy and Lisa Jackson, both of whom have kept the science behind their decisions secret. The latter EPA head (and first under Obama) declared CO2 a harmful pollutant!
Schneiderman said the EPA’s own studies show that pollution from upwind states substantially adds to harmful levels of smog in New York, and cited an American Lung Association report showing that the New York City area ranks as the nation’s ninth most smog-polluted city.
Schneiderman’s case would be stronger if NYC actually showed high ozone (smog) days going up. But they have decreased. The suit began under the Obama administration under a cloud of suspicion that Schneiderman et al was working with environmental groups in mustering together this suit.
According to Time, “With respect to nitrogen dioxide, NASA reported a 32% decrease in New York City and a 42% decrease in Atlanta between the periods of 2005-2007 and 2009-2011.”
Not to worry since you, the taxpayer, are paying for all of it: New Yorkers are paying for Schneiderman and his some 700 lawyers to rack up billable hours filing over 100 frivolous legal briefs against the Trump administration and a second payout by all U.S. taxpayers to fund the EPA and DOJ’s defense against the aforementioned litigation.
Are these state run by the Demac-RATS we all know how the Demac-Rats rub elbows with the Trial Lawyers and the Lawfirm of Vulture,Slug,Snake and Hyenah