Clean Air Advocates Criticize Obama Decision

{Kentucky}...Clean air advocates on Thursday criticized a decision by the Obama administration to scrap a proposed smog regulation, saying stronger federal environmental regulations would create jobs in Kentucky and Tennessee. Last week, the Obama administration declined to adopt a proposed EPA regulation aimed at reducing smog in an effort to lighten regulatory burdens on business in a weak economy. The regulation would have reduced concentrations of ground-level ozone, the main ingredient in smog. Mary Gade, former chief of the Environmental Protection Agency's regional office in Chicago, says the federal Clean Air Act has encouraged technological advancement and economic growth since it was enacted in the 1970s. Betsy Janes with the American Lung Association of Kentucky says the coal-burning plants have a powerful effect on air quality in Kentucky and Tennessee. The American Lung Association, which had sued the EPA over smog standards under former President Bush, said it would resume its legal fight in response to Obama's decision to pass on imposing stricter limits. The group had suspended its lawsuit after the Obama administration pledged to change it.