Perry wants 9 yr. extension on pollution standards - says Houston can't meet air quality standards

Wire Report - Sunday, June 17, 2007
HOUSTON - Gov. Rick Perry has asked federal officials for an extra nine years for the Houston-Galveston region to meet health standards for ground-level ozone, a request that if granted would make the area one of the last in the country to comply with clean-air guidelines.

In a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency dated Friday, Perry wrote that the region will be unable to meet guidelines by 2010 and that "not even a complete shutdown of the Houston Ship Channel would bring about sufficient reductions."

The request for an extra nine years to clean up Houston's smog is more than Harris County and city officials wanted. It's also the latest postponement in Houston's efforts to improve its air quality; the city's first federal deadline passed in 1975.

Houston officials and environmentalists said they were surprised that Perry asked for such a lengthy extension. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, as well as city and county officials, preferred a 2013 deadline.

"We thought it would be a challenge to do so by 2013 ... but we thought we could get close and give it shot," Mayor Bill White said. "I've said for years we have needed serious deadlines to ensure we were doing everything practical to reduce the ozone."

The EPA must reclassify Houston's smog problem from moderate to severe to grant the nine-year extension. The only city in the nation with a smog problem classified as severe by the EPA is Los Angeles.
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