Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Smog Levels to Remain Higher than Scientists Suggest Safe for Public Health

David Biello at Scientific American has a nice writeup on the recent Obama decision not to lower ozone levels:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/09/02/smog-levels-to-remain-higher-than-scientists-suggest-safe-for-public-health/

Had the new regulations been enacted, the bottom line would have been:

COST:
$90 B/yr

SAVINGS:
$100 B/yr in health costs
1500 lives/yr
probably tens of millions of dollars/yr in crop damages

Instead Obama clearly capitulated for the sake of getting reelected. It was probably a good decision from a purely political point of view, but it probably won't help  It certainly won't help the people breathing in all this crap.


2 comments:

Dano said...

I saw a comment somewhere that captures the essence:

Obama doesn't deserve to be re-elected. But the country doesn't deserve Romney.

Best,

D

David Appell said...

Ha, that's good. And true. I wouldn't vote for Obama again, if there was another decent choice. Wish Hillary would run, but I suspect no one will challenge him.