TEXAS, USA — Extreme Texas heat brings more than just sweat and high demand for AC: it also brings dangerous smog levels that impact ozone concentrations.
If ozone concentrations are high enough, the Environmental Protection Agency considers them unhealthy. Texas has experienced 43 days of unhealthy ozone concentrations "somewhere in the state" since the beginning of the year and as of Tuesday, according to a report from The Texas Tribune.
These 43 days mark not only "the most in the period of January to mid-July since 2012," but a doubling of the same types of bad ozone days at this time in 2021.
The Tribune reported that heat and climate change worsens smog and, by extension, ozone conditions. Ozone can contribute to lung irritation and inflammation, difficulty breathing, asthma attacks, chronic bronchitis and greater susceptibility to COVID-19.
Amid these unhealthy smog conditions, Texas politicians and agencies are pushing back against a proposed Environmental Protection Agency policy called the "good neighbor" rule. This rule "would require require about two dozen states, including Texas, to cut ozone pollution from power plants and industrial sources" that add to ozone pollution in surrounding states," according to the Tribune.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the "good neighbor" rule goes beyond federal authority and would affect the Texas electric grid. Other groups pushing back against the rule include the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
These challengers want "the EPA to instead approve its plan for ozone, which concluded that Texas emissions were not significantly contributing to ozone pollution in neighboring states," the Tribune reported. However, earlier this year, the EPA said it aims to deny that plan, and both the EPA and other environmental groups say Texas' emissions are impacting surrounding states.
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