Air Pollution

WASHINGTON - The Republican-controlled House on Friday took another swipe at the government's ability to control air pollution, passing a bill that would delay or scrap rules to reduce mercury and other harmful air emissions. The 249-169 vote sent the legislation to the Senate, where Environment and Public Works Committee chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) vowed to defeat it. "Let me be clear: This is a train we must stop," Boxer said after House passage. "I will do everything I can to block the rollbacks being pushed by House Republicans and polluters.

No one would deny that smoking is a serious health risk. Decades of research have established that it causes a range of diseases, from emphysema to lung cancer. Secondhand smoke poses many of the same health risks. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that scientists are discovering that some of the same problems are caused by outdoor air pollution. To effectively reduce air pollution in New Jersey, actions should focus on the largest sources of toxic emissions in the state - motor vehicles.

It was as if a time tunnel had opened to 1970, spilling headlines from that year onto today's pages: The federal government proposed strict new regulations for smog reduction last week, something that first happened in 1970. And, just as in 1970, nearly all reaction was pessimistic. Environmental activists declared that thickening smog was choking the skies and becoming a menace to life. Corporate leaders decreed the new goals to be wild-eyed idealism, requiring impossible technology and sure to bankrupt industry.

Irked by the power of "faceless bureaucracy," the Pennsylvania General Assembly has declared legislative war on the state's clean air program and on the federal Clean Air Act. Last week, the House of Representatives passed a resolution directing Gov. Casey to withdraw the state from the Ozone Transport Commission (OTC), a regional group that coordinates the attempts of 12 Northeastern states to meet increasingly stringent federal air pollution standards. That resolution now goes to the Senate for a vote.

The Philadelphia metropolitan area's air quality has improved over the last decade, but still remains among the worst in the country, concludes the American Lung Association's annual report on air pollution. "State of the Air 2013" uses data collected by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to analyze three measures of pollution: smog, daily particle pollution, and year-round particle pollution. Based on the results, the report ranks metropolitan areas and counties from worst to best.

IT'S A SMOGGY SUMMER DAY. The air feels thick. Most people know their lungs might suffer on such days. But increasingly, medical researchers are seeing harmful effects from air pollution on the heart, as well. "Inhaling a heart attack" is how one publication put it. Air pollution has both short- and long-term effects that can injure the heart and blood vessels, causing or exacerbating strokes, congestive heart failure, clogged arteries and other problems, research has shown.

Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future today filed a federal suit against a Marcellus Shale natural gas operator for allegedly violating air pollution laws. The environmental organization claims Ultra Resources Inc. of Houston is emitting large amounts of nitrogen oxides at its well sites in Tioga and Potter Counties. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Penn Future also filed a formal request with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for all records of air pollution at drilling sites across the state.

In order to resolve most conflicts, a certain level of trust must be present. One of the main reasons that the trash-to-steam issue has been such a difficult one to resolve is that the concerned residents do not have any trust in the city administration and in what it is telling them. The administration says it will impose strict air pollution regulations on the trash-to-steam plant it proposes to situate in South Philadelphia. But the residents know that the city cannot be trusted to implement existing air pollution laws.

So what if OPEC saddles us with higher oil prices? And if air pollution is growing unbridled? Ann Grez and her mount Autumn rode out such gloomy thoughts as well as yesterday's cloudy skies with a jaunt along Kelly Drive near the Strawberry Mansion Bridge. Both know the price of hay and oats is still reasonable and besides, the exhaust actually makes the flowers grow.

BEIJING - Whitney Foard Small loved China and her job as a regional director of communications for a top automaker. But after air pollution led to several stays in hospital and finally a written warning from her doctor telling her she needed to leave, Small packed up and left for Thailand. In doing so, the Ford Motor Co. executive became another expatriate to leave China because of the country's notoriously bad air. Other top executives whose careers would be boosted by a stint in the world's second-largest economy and most populous consumer market are put off when considering the move.

The Philadelphia metropolitan area's air quality has improved over the last decade, but still remains among the worst in the country, concludes the American Lung Association's annual report on air pollution. "State of the Air 2013" uses data collected by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to analyze three measures of pollution: smog, daily particle pollution, and year-round particle pollution. Based on the results, the report ranks metropolitan areas and counties from worst to best.

I'm typing in front of a crackling hearth, with regret that March has arrived. Don't get me wrong, I'm ready for spring. But, soon, the arrival of warm weather will also mark the end of the wood-burning season. Such is my love for burning fires all winter long that when our family vacationed in Florida at Christmas, I made sure to turn on a "Yule log" through Comcast's Xfinity on Demand before I'd let anyone open presents. I can't be the only one. Watching a wood fire burn on TV is a tradition that dates back to 1966, when WPIX-TV broadcast the first for viewers in New York City.

IT'S A SMOGGY SUMMER DAY. The air feels thick. Most people know their lungs might suffer on such days. But increasingly, medical researchers are seeing harmful effects from air pollution on the heart, as well. "Inhaling a heart attack" is how one publication put it. Air pollution has both short- and long-term effects that can injure the heart and blood vessels, causing or exacerbating strokes, congestive heart failure, clogged arteries and other problems, research has shown.

Pennsylvania regulators on Thursday proposed new air emission standards on natural gas compressor stations, the machinery that moves gas from well sites to transmission lines that environmentalists have targeted as a major pollution source associated with Marcellus Shale development. The Department of Environmental Protection says the new standards impose limits that are 75 to 90 percent stricter than current standards for the largest compressor stations. DEP will accept comments on the proposed changes until March 19. More information is available on the agency's website: bit.ly/WikzXZ.

President Obama pledged in his inaugural address to tackle climate change, something voters didn't hear much about on the campaign trail because it is such a volatile issue. Recalcitrant Republicans in Congress are already signaling they will block Obama on cutting air pollution. If that happens, the president should invoke executive powers that he restrained himself from using fully in his first term when he was trying to find bipartisan solutions. In the last year, Obama has shown an increasing proclivity to use his administrative power, as he did when he smartly eased student debt through regulations and appointed a consumer advocate during a congressional recess.

NASA today released satellite images documenting the off-the-charts pollution that has blanketed Beijing with thick smog. The abysmal air quality in the Chinese capital has led the government to order factories to reduce emissions and issue warnings to residents to stay inside. The pictures from NASA's Terra satellite, taken January 14, show the choking haze enveloping most of northeast China. The wave of pollution peaked Saturday. Expected to last through Tuesday, it was the severest smog since the government began releasing figures on PM2.5 particles, among the worst pollutants, early last year in response to a public outcry.

In the new movie Promised Land , Matt Damon plays an energy worker in rural Pennsylvania who has a crisis of conscience about the environmental risks of the drilling method known as fracking. But the reality is much more promising than Promised Land suggests. If regulated effectively, fracking can contribute enormously to U.S. growth and energy independence while combating climate change. The United States has massive deposits of natural gas and oil in shale formations, much of them in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale and elsewhere in the Northeast.

The searchlights over the Benjamin Franklin Parkway have gone dark. The three-week Open Air show by Montreal artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is packing up. But the issue of light pollution that simmered throughout is still with us. It is of concern not only to astronomers, but to others who feel the bejeweled dark sky is an important part of living on Earth and being human. The lofty realm has inspired us to write poetry, compose music, ponder the existence of God, and fall in love.