Georgia Institute of Technology. (2019, October 25). Energy regulation rollbacks threaten progress against harmful ozone. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 11, 2019 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191025113017.htm
The movement to reduce harmful ozone is under legal danger. This study models the future losses in the fight to drive down respiratory-damaging ozone if the regulations go away. Pollutants from coal-fired power plants help make ground-level ozone, and a fast warming world fuels it. Recent setbacks in U.S. energy regulations may speed climate change, increase pollutants in the air, and delay the fight against harmful ozone. Currently, 30 percent of the U.S. population lives with ozone levels that are far past what is stated to be healthy by the government.
The increase in ozone directly causes an increase in respiratory illness and cost of reaching ozone level targets. In the last three years, there have been many energy policies that have been loosened which led to a large increase in carbon dioxide emissions and a greater pile up of even more ozone. The prevention of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) and the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) plan going into effect makes it easier to burn fossil fuels. A model was made where there was one area where there was strict regulation and one area where regulation was loose. The results showed that the area with loose regulation would be in a zone that is past the health regulations by 2050. I found it a bit confusing why some policies were not put into effect when they presented benefits.
This article is very concerning as it relates to United States environmental policy. The rollback of ozone protection policies is a step back as far as preserving our environment. This issue becomes more prevalent as we are under the Trump administration, which has continued to roll back environmental protections. Hopefully under a new president the government will reinstate these policies in order to combat climate change and damage to the ozone layer.
I found this article to be quite surprising because I did not know exactly how much of an impact coal pollution has on our environment. In addition, I thought more was being done to limit the effects of coal pollution. What do you think the United States should do in order to help reduce coal emissions?