Good News from the EPA: Stricter Smog Standards

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There's not much to say about this other than that it's nice the Enivronmental Protection Agency is back in the business of protecting the environment:

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed stricter health standards for smog, replacing a Bush-era limit that ran counter to scientific recommendations.The new limits -- which are presented as a range -- will likely put hundreds more counties nationwide in violation, a designation that will require them to find additional ways to clamp down on pollution or face government sanctions, most likely the loss of federal highway dollars.The tighter standards will cost tens of billions of dollars to implement, but will ultimately save billions in avoided emergency room visits, premature deaths, and missed work and school days, the EPA said.

This is part of a general trend of the EPA doing it's job under the new management. Nice work, Lisa P. Jackson.Photo of Houston from Flickr user rkimpeljr (cc)