---
title: 'Recommendation: “Set the Ozone Standard at 0.0 ppb”'
slug: 'recommendation-set-the-ozone-standard-at-0-0-ppb'
date: 2026-05-12
type: 'post'
status: 'published'
tags: ['clean-air-act', 'regulatory-reform']
abstract: '[](/images/sip/set-ozone-standard-at-zero.gif)I would recommend setting the ozone standard at 0.0 ppb.'
license: 'CC-BY-4.0'
author: 'Jed Anderson'
co_authors: []
canonical_url: 'https://jedanderson.org/posts/recommendation-set-the-ozone-standard-at-0-0-ppb'
original_source: 'https://sipreform.wordpress.com/2015/06/04/recommendation-set-the-ozone-standard-at-0-0-ppb/'
original_date: 2015-06-04
supporting_files: []
---

[![Set Ozone Standard at Zero](/images/sip/set-ozone-standard-at-zero.gif)](/images/sip/set-ozone-standard-at-zero.gif)I would recommend setting the ozone standard at 0.0 ppb.  

The Clean Air Act was written with the knowingly false assumption by the authors that there is some safe level of pollution:

> **— “Our public health scientists and doctors have told us [in 1970] that there is no threshold, that any air pollution is harmful. The Clean Air Act is based on the assumption, *although we knew at the time it was inaccurate*, that there is a threshold.”**—Senator Edmund Muskie, 1977

Seems more honest just to jump to the end and set the ozone standard at 0.0 ppb.  That way we would also be forced to statutorily address the problems that have developed in the intertwined implementation process–and could more openly and transparently talk about where we need to go, the timeline, how to get there, and the costs and trade-offs we are willing to make.

The world is changing.  We must change with it.  Time to modernize and revitalize the Clean Air Act.  We can make it happen.