Rep. Smith hosts forum about new air-quality regulations

Local legislators, city officials and business leaders gathered Tuesday morning to discuss a common concern: air-quality standards.

U.S. Rep. Jason Smith hosted the meeting at the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce to better understand how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's plans to tighten National Ambient Air Quality Standards will affect businesses.

The change would reduce acceptable levels for ground-level ozone from 75 parts per billion to between 60 and 70 parts per billion.

Ground-level ozone is an pollutant that is harmful to breathe, and it damages crops, trees and other vegetation, according the EPA.

That drop in an acceptable level represents a problem for the area, said David Grimes, regional planner for the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission. Monitoring stations in Bonne Terre and Farrar, Missouri, couldn't meet those levels even on a good day.

Failure to maintain those new levels mean Perry and Ste. Genevieve counties would be considered nonattainment areas, subject to strict and costly regulations.

"The default value if we become a nonattainment area becomes lowest achievable emission rate, and that is basically the money-is-no-object standard [to reduce emissions]," he said.

It also would place neighboring Cape Girardeau, Madison and Bollinger counties under heavier scrutiny.

But the expense to counties wouldn't stop at pricey new equipment to reduce emissions; it could cost them new business. Grimes said when businesses are looking for new locations, they avoid nonattainment areas. For companies already in the nonattainment areas, expanding or taking on large projects typically are not affordable.

Kimberly Bauman of Mississippi Lime Co. in Ste. Genevieve said the change in status would be enough to keep the company from taking on projects that could provide 30 or more new jobs. Paul Schell and Steve Leus of Buzzi Unicem said the outlook would be equally grim for their company.

"Expansions and improvements are what we're looking at all the time, trying to be more efficient," said Leus. "And when you have that kind of regulation over your head, you can't even think about it."

Smith said there are ways Congress can take action against the regulations it finds overreaching. One option is "using the purse strings" through the appropriations process.

Since 2009, he said Congress has been in the habit of passing continued resolutions, which are basically a blank check for the administrations to use as they see fit. Smith said he hasn't voted for a continued resolution since he took office last year, but he has voted in favor of appropriations bills that would allow more accountability and congressional oversight.

Another option is passing legislation restricting an agency's authority. For the past six months, Smith has been working on the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome Act of 2014, or SCRUB Act, which he said is designed to eliminate outdated or ineffective regulations. The measure was recently passed out of the House Judiciary Committee, but still must be approved in the House and Senate.

After hearing the group's concerns about the air quality standards, Smith said he planned to take the information back to Washington to share with colleagues as he works to fight back against the regulations.

srinehart@semissourian.com

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