As always, Joel Schwartz’s latest analysis of air quality policy is a gem.
Despite its sober tone and measured language, the Staff Paper nevertheless substantially exaggerates the health risks of ozone at contemporary U.S. levels. If anything, what has become clear over the last several years is that ozone is having, at worst, a tiny effect on Americans’ health and welfare. Ironically, it is EPA’s own research staff, along with their counterparts at the California Air Resources Board (CARB), who have provided much of the analysis demonstrating the mildness of ozone’s public health impacts.