Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Air Quality

The Big Question: What is the Purpose of Federal Transportation Spending?

By Elana Schor | Feb 26, 2010 | No Comments

With the White House’s agenda crowded by high-profile debates that remain unresolved after lengthy talks with Congress — think health care, financial regulation, even unemployment benefits — only a handful of lawmakers are publicly engaging with the dominant issues surrounding the next long-term federal transportation bill. (Photo: UVA) Within that group of lawmakers, however, there […]

Report: White House Budget Office Helped Weaken EPA Pollution Rule

By Elana Schor | Feb 8, 2010 | 1 Comment

Pensacola, Florida. Springfield, Missouri. Fort Wayne, Indiana. All three of those metropolitan areas have populations between 350,000 and 500,000, and all three would have been required to install nitrogen dioxide monitoring stations near major roadways under a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule cracking down on the pollutant. Cass Sunstein, chief of the White House […]

EPA Strengthens Nitrogen Dioxide Rules for First Time in 35 Years

By Elana Schor | Jan 25, 2010 | No Comments

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a new "one-hour standard" aimed at limiting Americans’ short-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a pollutant created by cars, power plants, and other industrial sources. (Photo: TreeHugger) NO2, a main ingredient in smog, is linked to adverse respiratory health effects such as chronic asthma. In creating a new […]

EPA Air Chief: We Need to Do More to Reduce VMT

By Elana Schor | Jan 14, 2010 | 7 Comments

Obama administration officials "need to align together" to work on reducing the nation’s total vehicle miles traveled — work that should go beyond a pending congressional climate bill — the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) air-quality chief said today. Gina McCarthy, EPA’s top air pollution regulator. (Photo: CECE) Gina McCarthy, EPA’s assistant administrator for air and […]

Think Tank Responds to Report on Hidden Costs of Fossil Fuels: Yawn

By Elana Schor | Oct 20, 2009 | 1 Comment

The National Academy of Science’s new report on the hidden health costs of U.S. reliance on fossil fuels has generated high-profile media coverage around the country, most of it focusing on the $62 billion annual estimate for coal rather than the $56 billion projection for vehicles. (Photo: SILive.com) But Greenwire’s write-up is particularly interesting, if […]

Construction Industry and Green Group Join Hands on Clean Diesel

By Elana Schor | Oct 15, 2009 | No Comments

Clean diesel engines, which expel less emissions and get better mileage than conventional counterparts, are benefiting from a lobbying campaign by auto companies. And environmental advocates have come to the table, agreeing with the construction industry on a plan to convert highway construction equipment to clean diesel. A clean-diesel excavator at work in New York […]

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