OREANDA-NEWS. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has sent its new ozone limits to the White House for review, a month ahead of court deadline to finalize the updated air quality standard.

EPA sent the standard to the White House Office of Management and Budget on 28 August.

EPA last year proposed setting a new standard in the range of 65-70 parts per billion (ppb), down from the current 75ppb. The EPA is under court order to issue a new ozone standard by 1 October.

The possibility of a stricter ozone limit has led to considerable pushback from industry groups, which warn the new standard will lead to significant job losses. The US Chamber of Commerce, American Petroleum Institute (API) and National Association of Manufacturers have been among the most vocal critics, warning of millions of job losses and costs of up to $270bn/yr.

Earlier this month, 370 business groups, including API's state petroleum councils, asked the White House to keep the 75ppb limit in place. "The air is getting cleaner, and the current ozone standards need an opportunity to work," the groups wrote in a letter to White House chief of staff Dennis McDonough.

Environmentalists want EPA to set the new standard at the lowest level possible, citing studies on the health effects of smog. "It is time to take the advice of doctors and medical scientists, and act to protect the health of American families by setting much stronger protections from smog pollution," Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign director Mary Anne Hitt said.

Ozone forms when NOX and volatile organic compounds emissions from cars, power plants and other sources mix in sunlight, contributing to smog pollution that EPA says can aggravate asthma and respiratory illnesses.

The new standard could lead EPA to set lower emissions limits to address interstate transport of air pollution. The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, written in 2011, was designed to help states in the eastern US meet air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter that were set in 1997 and 2006. The agency updated the ozone standard in 2008 and issued a tougher particulate standard in 2012.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals last month ordered EPA to revise SO2 and seasonal NOX emissions budgets for 13 states covered by the cross-state rule. Environmentalists want EPA to update the budgets based on the more recent standards.

EPA is already working on new regulations to help cut interstate transport emissions under the 2008 ozone limit that may be proposed in December.