American Lung Association presses White House to set ozone deadline

The Environmental Protection Agency has said it will issue the updated standards “shortly,” but has not offered a specific deadline.

The delays have drawn the ire of public health and environmental groups, who say the standards threaten the health of millions of people every year.

“[M]llions of infants, children, older adults, and people with chronic diseases can’t avoid breathing smog,” the American Lung Association said in the letter. “They depend upon the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to follow the Clean Air Act and protect their health.”

Industry groups have mounted a campaign to scuttle the standards, arguing they will impose a major burden on the economy. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Petroleum Institute and others have lobbied the White House and EPA to delay updating the standards until at least 2013, the next mandatory review period under the Clean Air Act.