California Air Quality Executive blasts EPA

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday unveiled proposals to slash diesel soot from freight trains and marine vessels by 90% by 2030, winning guarded praise from environmentalists, but a scathing rebuke from Southern California’s top air quality regulator… South Coast Air Quality Management District Executive Officer Barry Wallerstein said the region was “being thrown table scraps” with rules designed to benefit industry, which will allow thousands of Californians to continue to die prematurely for decades. Greater Los Angeles is exposed to pollution from diesel engines more than anywhere in the nation, with 40% of all goods shipped to the U.S. funneled through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on diesel-powered ships and trains. The air that Southern Californians breathe contains more than half of all the diesel particulate emitted in the U.S. each year.”