American Forest & Paper Association Statement Regarding EPA's Final PM NAAQS Standards: American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) President and CEO Donna Harman released the following statement following the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) release of its final National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter (PM). “We are disappointed that EPA chose to lower the annual PM standard, imposing burdensome new restrictions on economic growth and ignoring the significant uncertainty in the underlying science. This lower annual PM standard means that businesses seeking air quality permits to construct new equipment or modify existing plants even in rural areas will find it very difficult to model compliance. We are concerned that manufacturing facilities may be forced to look at pollution controls that are technically infeasible or cost prohibitive, preventing expanded production and job growth. In setting this new PM NAAQS standard, EPA apparently relied on a few selected studies to support their hypothesis of health effects resulting from PM exposure, while discounting studies that showed no association.
“This is yet another example of where regulation by consent decree creates costly rules with huge scientific uncertainty and, in this case, at a time when the economy is struggling.”
