On Monday Governor Hassan joined Democratic governors from seven other Northeastern states in asking the EPA to clamp down on emissions drifting over their borders from other states. The petition targets states upwind from the Northeast, which Governor Hassan says produce the vast majority of ozone-causing pollution in New Hampshire, wafts across our borders from the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic
“If we took every single car off our roadways, we still could only reduce ozone by three percent,” Hassan told reporters during a conference call.
The Northeastern states, from Maine to Maryland, are already coordinating their efforts to reduce this pollution. Now they want the EPA to extend that compact east to Illinois and south to North Carolina. If the EPA agrees, those states would be required to reduce pollution using “readily available control technology” and switching to cleaner fuels like natural gas.
The so-called “good neighbor” rule that allows the EPA to require such changes was struck down by a DC circuit court of appeals last year. Tuesday in the US Supreme Court will hear arguments in an appeal to that decision.