The Environmental Protection Agency acted out of character this month when it actually strengthened pollution standards, putting cities across America on the spot to reduce their pollution levels. The same EPA that took several states, including Massachusetts, to court to challenge their tighter pollution standards has now lowered the level of smog deemed safe nationwide. Now, dozens of major American cities as well as all but two counties in Massachusetts have higher levels of smog than is healthy, according to the agency.
As sudden as it seems, the announcement is a realistic wakeup call even for the mass transit-intensive Boston area. Though services like the MBTA save cars from generating tons of pollutants from the air each year, this does little outside the T’s service area, where driving is a way of life. The city could also use more clean-fuel buses and bike-friendly infrastructure than the token gestures available now.
This new announcement should also draw attention to a wider problem — if even suburban Massachusetts counties face unsafe levels of pollution, more drastic change is needed. More fuel-efficient cars could only prompt consumers to spend their savings on other polluting activities, erasing any good clean cars and buses do. Ultimately, if state residents want to improve their health, they will have to conserve fuel, and that means sacrificing some of the consumption to which we have become accustomed.