AUGUSTA (AP) — Maine’s environmental department is seeking approval from the federal government to opt out of some anti-smog regulations.
Under a proposal from Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection, new or newly-upgraded industrial polluters would be exempt from federal Clean Air Act measures designed to reduce ground-level ozone.
The plan would allow the state to avoid some of the requirements upheld by the Ozone Transport Region, an agreement made by several northeastern states to help reduce pollution.
The state should be exempt from some of the standards because Maine currently meets federal ozone standards, the department told The Portland Press Herald in a statement (http://bit.ly/1chk47d ).
But environmental advocacy groups like Maine’s Sierra Club called on the department to hold a public meeting on the proposal. In a statement Monday, the groups said the proposal would result in more air pollution that could harm Maine citizens, especially the elderly.
Marc Cone, the department’s air bureau director, said the rules are harming Maine businesses.
“We’ve had a couple of facilities that wanted to expand — be it a sawmill or a pellet manufacturer or a paper mill that wants to increase production — and one of the roadblocks has been that they have to get these emissions offsets,” he said.
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