Photos of the US before the EPA

Green Car Reports has a series of photos reminding us why the EPA was created in the first place. 

That is the George Washington Bridge below - if you can't tell. 

1970s Los Angeles smog

[Green Car Reports]

One way to encourage public transportation

You can see the Eiffel Tower -
if you look carefully

Paris imposed a ban on 50% of all cars in the center of the city as a way of lowering severely unhealthy levels of smog. 

Cars with odd numbered plates will drive on odd numbered days - Cars with even numbered plates will be allowed to drive on even numbered days.  Fines will be 22 Euros for anyone driving on the wrong day. 

According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), Belgium, Germany, and France all faced dangerous levels of air pollution with three quarters of France recording PM10 concentrations above the 50 micrograms per cubic meter legal limit. [Business Green] 

Sustainability News

The Georgia Public Service Commission voted in favor yesterday of a plan that will require the state's largest energy provider to increase its solar power capacity by 525 megawatts by the end of 2016. [Atlanta Business Chronicle]

Air pollution kills more than 2 million people worldwide per year, with sooty particles and ozone causing the most deaths, according to a new study. [Guardian]

Warning! The bridge is out - Natural gas prices rise - use of coal rises along with CO2 emissions [LA Times]

In Southern California, fish populations dropped 78 percent in 40 years, which experts say can't be related "to anything other than a regional oceanographic climate effect." [LA Times]

The United States is now one of four countries to achieve 10 gigawatts of solar power capacity, and installations are only expected to accelerate. [CleanTechnica]

EPA's recent retreat on a study linking fracking to drinking water contamination in Wyoming is not the only time the agency has retreated on fracking investigations and studies. [High Country News]

The Great Barrier Reef's coral cover has declined 50 percent since 1985, and its overall condition is now classified as "poor" — changes due in part to extreme weather in Australia. [Guardian]

MIT climatologist (and Lexington resident) Kerry Emanuel has a new study out showing that with unchecked greenhouse gas emissions, the world faces not just more intense hurricanes, but up to 20 more per year by the end of the century. [Climate Central]

Toronto was pummeled with a "month's worth of rain" yesterday, causing floods that stranded 1,500 on a commuter train and downed power in much of the city. [NBC News]

The life expectancy of 500 million people may have dropped 5 years due to the promotion of coal use in Northern China. [Washington Post]

Google has invested $1 billion in renewable energy, making the company a major player in the energy sector. [Fuel Fix]

Washington, D.C. is considering waiving parking space requirements for new buildings, echoing shifts other cities have made in response to shrinking car ownership. [Wall Street Journal]

Beijing shuts down factories to combat smog

Severe smog and air pollution in Beijing
Photograph: HAP/Quirky China News / Rex Feat

Beijing was again shrouded in smog today, prompting a second wave of emergency measures from the city government designed to tackle the capital's crippling air pollution.

State news agency Xinhua confirmed that 103 polluting factories have been ordered to close until Thursday at the earliest.

The latest steps came as Beijing's pollution spiked for the second time in as many weeks, with the US embassy reporting that its air pollution index score had reached 517 - a level described as "beyond index". Residents reported that visibility was down to 100 metres in some areas and Air China confirmed that 14 flights had been cancelled at the city's airport.

Today's wave of factory shutdowns and travel restrictions follow similar moves last week, which also saw Mayor Wang Ashun vow to take 180,000 older cars off the roads and take measures to tackle "excessive" growth in car ownership. [Business Green]

Hospitals reported increases of up to 30% in the number of patients reporting breathing problems as officials warned that the conditions were likely to last until Wednesday – a day longer than previously predicted – when winds should help to disperse the pollution.

"How can we get out of this suffocating siege of pollution?" the People's Daily, the official Communist party newspaper, asked in a front-page editorial.

"Let us clearly view managing environmental pollution with a sense of urgency."

It said around half of more than 70 Chinese cities monitored for air quality showed severe pollution over the weekend. [Guardian]

Pollution in China - Off the Charts

Beijing obscured by air pollution haze on January 13, 2013. 

On a scale of 0 to 500, Beijing air quality hits 755! [NY Times]

On January 12, Beijing's air pollution reached unprecedented levels, even beyond the upper limits of the Air Quality Index, which reports daily air quality around the world, and it's taking a serious toll on Beijing's residents. [ThinkProgress]

According to one hospital official, the number of emergency room patients with heart attacks roughly doubled over the weekend. Hospitals are struggling to handle an influx of people suffering from respiratory and cardiac trouble…. 

China's pollution disaster should serve as a warning for American lawmakers who want to defund the Environmental Protection Agency.

EPA reducing power plant air pollution

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing regulations to cut air pollution that impairs air quality and harms the health of people living downwind. The regulation will target power plant pollution that drifts across the borders of 31 eastern states and the District of Columbia. Air pollution is linked to thousands of asthma cases and heart attacks, and almost 2 million lost school or work days. Along with local and state air pollution controls, the new proposal, called the transport rule, is designed to help areas in the eastern United States meet existing national air quality health standards. 

"This rule is designed to cut pollution that spreads hundreds of miles and has enormous negative impacts on millions of Americans," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "We're working to limit pollution at its source, rather than waiting for it to move across the country. The reductions we're proposing will save billions in health costs, help increase American educational and economic productivity, and -- most importantly -- save lives."
The transport rule would reduce power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NO_x) to meet state-by-state emission reductions. By 2014, the rule and other state and EPA actions would reduce SO₂ emissions by 71 percent over 2005 levels. NO_x emissions would drop by 52 percent. 

The EPA stated that this action would yield more than $120 billion in annual health benefits in 2014, including avoiding an estimated 14,000 to 36,000 premature deaths, 23,000 nonfatal heart attacks, 21,000 cases of acute bronchitis, 240,000 cases of aggravated asthma, and 1.9 million days when people miss school or work due to ozone- and particle pollution-related symptoms. These benefits would far outweigh the annual cost of compliance with the proposed rule, which EPA estimates at $2.8 billion in 2014. 

In a similar move the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of new legislation on Wednesday that aims to streamline and tighten existing rules governing power plant emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and particulates.