A new study showed vehicle emissions from the Los Angeles area are degrading air quality in nearby national parks but plans to scuttle Environmental Protection Agency regulations to reduce carbon emissions could make the air quality even worse.
Called “Driving Dirty Air,” the study identified the Los Angeles and Southern California metro region as the nation’s worst vehicle pollution “hot spot” affecting national parks.
Ulla Reeves, clean air program director for the National Parks Conservation Association, said Los Angeles was only one of a dozen metro areas sending noxious emissions into parks and nature preserves.
“We found the places like Los Angeles and Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, New York, Washington, D.C., and even the Asheville, Knoxville Metro areas surrounding Great Smoky Mountains National Park,” Reeves outlined.
The study found the Los Angeles region is sending more than 76,000 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions into Southern California national parks such as Joshua Tree, Channel Islands and Death Valley, as well as the Mojave Preserve and Santa Monica Recreation Area. The Trump administration said it wants to cut “excessive” federal regulations and shift regulatory power to the states.
Conservative leaders want to repeal a 2009 “Endangerment Finding,” which is the foundation for regulating greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA is also reconsidering its Regional Haze Program, designed to protect visibility and air quality in national parks.
Mark Rose, Sierra Nevada and senior clean air program manager for the association, said when urban pollution is not controlled, national parks in rural areas can suffer from the same bad air.
“Pollution from vehicle tailpipes doesn’t follow park boundaries,” Rose pointed out. “Much of the pollution that we see is coming from these urban areas that can be hundreds of miles away from a park, but is traveling and then impacting air quality in the national park.”
Rose added if the federal government relaxes regulations governing the carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides, dozens of America’s natural wonders could have little or no protection from billions of tons of noxious gases every year.
