The administration is slated to tighten the restrictions for ozone, the pollutant that causes smog, by Oct. 1, but some African-American state and local politicians are lining up with business groups to warn that the clampdown would hurt poor communities and manufacturing centers like Gary, Ind., and St. Louis.
Those local and state officials say they are still trying to comply with the ozone requirements that were issued by George W. Bush's EPA in 2008, and a stricter standard would inflict more pain on their struggling economies and stifle job growth.
“There has to be balance in the application of this policy, particularly when you look at the fact that the standard was recently changed and that industry, particularly the steel industry, have worked hard to achieve the standards and have some challenges in their efforts to achieve the standards,” Gary's mayor, Karen Freeman-Wilson, told POLITICO.
