Max Baucus: “this is a happy day, because it was not too long ago here that, after the EPA announced new standards for ozone and…”

“this is a happy day, because it was not too long ago here that, after the EPA announced new standards for ozone and small particulates, there was going to be a huge uproar in the Senate and there would be a big battle over whether or not the EPA should be allowed to go ahead with these new standards. Frankly, however, as Senators have looked at this issue--and I take my hat off to the Senator from Oklahoma, Senator Inhofe, who has come up with this amendment--the effect of this amendment is not to delay those standards and not to in any way impede those standards, but rather set up a procedure which helps, frankly, assure the process will continue on a fair basis; namely, that the monitoring costs--and they will be quite extensive; that is monitoring the air in various parts of the country, particularly nonattainment areas--will be paid for by the Environmental Protection Agency. That is not by States. The States will be fully reimbursed for their monitoring costs. So that helps establish a solid program because we know where the money is going to come from and it will be fully paid for. A second major change here, at least a clarification, is that States will not be faced with new nonattainment designations under the Clean Air Act for PM 2.5--that is the small particulates--without 3 years of monitoring data. That at least makes sense, that we have 3 years of monitoring data. In fact, the EPA-proposed standard was based on a 3-year average anyway.”