A new study from Georgia Institute of Technology examined the effects of rolling back air quality regulations on ozone. The study found that the number of counties with ozone over the standard will increase by 75% in 2050 if energy policies are relaxed and climate change continues. Ozone is known to cause numerous health problems including respiratory and heart problems, strokes, and lower birthweight in infants.
https://phys.org/news/2019-10-energy-policies-climate-worsen-air.html
https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2590-3322%2819%2930073-9
The study found that the effects of relaxing energy policies are synergistic with climate change. Because relaxed energy policies will cause more climate change, and because ozone formation happens faster in hotter temperatures, relaxing energy policies will increase ozone by both increases in precursors and by climate change speeding up ozone formation.
Currently, about 30% of people in the US live in counties that do not meet ozone standards. The number of counties violating the standards will increase if energy policies are relaxed, and many more people will have health problems as a result.
They studied future ozone under the current ozone standard of 70ppb, if the standard was stronger at 60ppb, and what would happen if the fuel economy standard is weakened, if incentives such as tax credits for clean energy are removed, if the Clean Power Plan is replaced with the Affordable Clean Energy Policy, and the effects of climate change on future efforts to control ozone.
