COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The governors of several Northeastern states recently agreed to ask the Environmental Protection Agency to impose new air pollution controls on utilities and industries in the Midwest. They claim the controls are needed to help their states meet stricter national clean air standards.
No one disagrees that clean air is a priority. In the last 20 years, Ohio's ozone levels have dropped by 25 percent. Today, every urban area in Ohio, except Cincinnati, meets the current national air quality standard for ozone. This success has been possible because of a strong, 25-year commitment.
Through 1995, Ohio's utilities spent $3.7 billion on air pollution controls -- more than in New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia combined. In 1994, the state even imposed a stringent, and unpopular, auto emissions test in 14 counties.
States in the Northeast, like Ohio, need to take responsibility for the pollution they create. The Northeast creates 75 percent of the problem it is now pointing to the Midwest to solve, according to a recent two-year study by the Ozone Transport Assessment Group, which is charged with seeking regional solutions to the smog problem. Air pollution from a particular state may affect a neighboring state, according to the study, but for states hundreds of miles away, the impact is minimal. For instance, Ohio contributes to less than 5 percent of the smog problem in the Northeast.
Even though Ohio is a small part of the problem, we are willing to help. Ohio and other states agreed to impose additional controls when emissions are having a meaningful impact on other states. But even if every coal-burning power plant in the Midwest is shut down, residents of the Northeast would still breathe air that doesn't meet Federal standards.
Moreover, cleaner air is best attained through regional cooperation. The Ozone Transport Assessment Group was formed by 37 states to avoid the lengthy, nonproductive and costly litigation that would occur if states petitioned the E.P.A. separately.
But now New York, Massachusetts, Maine and other "downwind" states, which participate in the group, may petition the E.P.A. anyway. If their appeal succeeds, it will in all likelihood be a boon for environmental lawyers, but it won't do much to clean up the air.
George V. Voinovich is the Governor of Ohio.
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