Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Environmental Officials Align with Polluters in Texas by Vern Blossfeld

Summary: Houston, Texas, has some of the nation's highest ozone levels, pollution levels that contribute greatly to smog that irritates and causes asthma. The chair of the Texas agency responsible for environmental protection, despite this fact, says tightening the country's smog standard would cost too much, and isn't concerning enough to public health. Though ozone levels are a lot more improved now compared to what they were in Texas, parts of the state, most noticeably the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston areas, have some of the nation's highest ozone readings. This doesn't seem to concern the Texas agency of environmental protection at all, the chairmen of which continue to push down bills that might help further protect our atmosphere. (All because it would cost big industries too much money).
Analysis: This is very suspicious, and doesn't sound good at all for the future of cities and the health of people living in them. I bet if you checked the chairmen's pay roll, a lot of them are getting money from these big industries who'd be effected by restrictions on the ozone given off by their factories. Hopefully more people will become concerned when they hear about this, and push for the issue to be of higher priority than it is right now in the city. This is a world issue because cities all around the world have to deal with pollution given off by these highly populated areas.
Sourcehttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/20150317-ozone-air-pollution-clean-air-act-smog-texas-houston-dallas/

1 comment:

  1. I agree that this is an important issue, and I'm also sure that providing money for the decrease in pollution from the factories would affect the chairmen in some way.

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