Downtown Denver is enveloped in haze on Feb. 8, 2012. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to issue stricter limits on ground-level ozone by Oct. 1. (RJ Sangosti, Denver Post file)
Re: “Don’t put ozone rules out of reach,” Sept. 18.
The sky-is-falling alarmism currently spread by some in the oil and gas industry and echoed by the Denver Post editorial board is baseless and counterproductive.
The Clean Air Act was enacted in 1970 by President Richard Nixon. Since then, emissions of the six common pollutants regulated under the act have been reduced by 68 percent. The economic “damage” that industry has repeatedly and frantically warned us about? An increase in our gross domestic product of 234 percent during that same timeframe.
Whatap very real, on the other hand, are the health harms our kids face on account of smog pollution in the Denver metro area. An independent advisory board, comprised of physicians and scientists, has reviewed all of the existing studies of the health impacts of ozone pollution and determined that the current standard (75 parts per billion) is not sufficiently protective of human health and, therefore, needs to be strengthened.
We must take action now to put in place strong standards that protect the health of our families and communities.
Dan Grossman, Denver
The writer is Rocky Mountain regional director of Environmental Defense Fund.
This letter was published in the Sept. 25 edition.
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