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Hassan Signs On To Cross-Border Air Pollution Petition

NHPR

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.

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.
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