Ozone in Montgomery

    Several months ago, the EPA held a public hearing in Montgomery on the prospective reduction in the amount of ozone allowed in the air over the Capitol City. At the end of the hearing, it was indicated that a decision would come a month later...late in October. Here we are approaching the end of the year, and nothing.

     I took the photo on the top-right, by the way, above Birmingham in the late 1970's, when U.S. Steel was in full operation in Ensley.

    The EPA released a statement a couple of weeks ago reaffirming their concern about the issue, but saying they wanted to make sure they had all the information to make the correct decision. What???

    Then I read this story in today's L.A. Times and I began to see a trend. (Coal Ash is a main focus of the story...and it too is a concern in Alabama. Hundreds of tons of it has been dumped in Perry County at the for-profit Arrowhead Landfill. It was transported by train from Tennessee, where almost two years ago a huge coal ash pond dam broke, spilling it onto the land and water nearby.)
   
     When Mayor Todd Strange was a guest on CBS-8 This Morning on Tuesday, he said he had told the members of the Alabama Congressional Delegation about business concerns that if the limit on ozone was tightened, it could have a negative effect on business development in the city.
     Is that why there's been no decision by EPA?
     Will the incoming Republican controlled U.S. House be less likely to support increased EPA regulation?