Polluted Air Comes at a Cost

In an opinion piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Aug. 22nd, Patrick Mcllheran, an editorial columnist, suggested that it doesn’t make sense for the EPA to tighten the ozone rules to improve public health. He sticks to the classic argument that cleaning up pollution will be done at the expense of added prosperity. To me, this is a false choice and ignores reasonable solutions that would dramatically improve our air quality and enhance our quality of life.

The most obvious solution would be to raise the corporate average fuel economy of our vehicle fleet (CAFE.) That simply means making cars that go farther on a tank of gas. Currently a House/Senate conference committee is working on combining their respective energy bills into one bill. The Senate voted to raise the CAFE standards to 35 mpg by the year 2020. Let’s make sure the final bill includes this improvement in the standard.

An improved vehicle fleet would dramatically improve our air quality. Taking this step would also not penalize SE Wisconsin, because the standards would apply to the U.S. vehicle fleet. We would benefit from reduced emissions that follow the air currents from Chicago. Our Wisconsin drivers would save an estimated $449 million dollars in 2020 and job growth would create an estimated 3,400 new jobs through local spending according to a study by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The Mcllheran op-ed was titled: “Cleaner air is better air – but it isn’t free air.” I would argue that polluters continue to view clean air as “free air,” but the reality is that it comes at a great cost to the health and welfare of our families in Wisconsin.