WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and 3rd district Congressman Evan Jenkins both criticized the federal EPA’s announcement of tightened ozone standards on Thursday.
The standard was lowered from 75 parts-per-billion to 70 ppb.
“The new ozone standard announced today will jeopardize our ability to create new manufacturing jobs at a time when West Virginia’s growing natural gas reserves should mean more factories and plants are coming online,” said Capito in a release. “EPA continues to hold America back with its onerous regulations and deeply flawed permitting process for new and expanding manufacturing facilities.”
Jenkins was similarly disappointed in the ruling, saying that it would come at the cost of more jobs statewide.
“Today’s announcement is another attempt by the EPA to promote its radical agenda at the expense of West Virginia’s jobs. We have already seen how committed the EPA is to destroying West Virginia’s coal jobs, and now the EPA is aggressively pursuing attacks on our manufactures and factories,” Jenkins said. “This ozone rule threatens manufacturing jobs across West Virginia and the nation, placing the administration’s environmental agenda ahead of the livelihood of our families.”
Both Capito and Jenkins have taken steps to rollback the ruling. Jenkins introduced an amendment in the House Appropriations Committee to block implementation of the new ozone standard.
Capito is a co-sponsor of The Clean Air, Strong Economies Act, which aims to fight back against the “economic harm projected to accompany the stricter ground-level ozone limits.”