The WaPo digs in to a report released by a group called Environment Maryland, part of a coalition of environmentalists, health professionals and religious leaders who want to require California-like emissions standards for all new motor vehicles by 2011. The report highlights EPA figures that show that Baltimore City, plus Montgomery, Baltimore and Prince George’s counties, all have dangerously high levels of cancer-causing air pollutants. Despite protestations from entirely dispassionate Maryland automobile dealers that the proposal is full of “scare tactics,” seeing our neighbor to the north implement the kinds of more stringent emissions standards already adopted by 11 other states sounds as if it could only benefit the District — especially when you bother to read the final paragraphs of the article:
Environmental advocates said changing the rules would cut emissions by 57 to 79 percent within two decades. The average statewide cancer risk in Maryland was 40 times higher than the federal government standard established by the Clean Air Act.
That is less than the national average, which is 41.5 times higher, and the District’s, at 53.5, but greater than the level in Virginia, at 32 times higher. Rates in Arlington and Fairfax counties are comparable to those in Washington’s Maryland suburbs.
Sigh. Those are some pretty terrible figures for us in D.C., even if they might be potentially skewed a bit by factors such as population density (whole parts of Virginia are, in fact, rural and sparsely populated). It’s pretty obvious all the same that we should support the lobbying efforts of this Maryland environmental coalition. Not only is air pollution not just a local issue (meaning dirty air can and does travel and affect neighboring states), but, as we’ve seen in the cases of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and other New England states, these sorts of regulations appear to work a bit like dominoes: neighboring state legislatures see how well the restrictions work to clean up air pollution, and there’s more to be gained for everyone by adopting the rules in a larger and larger geographic area.
Photo by eteel.
