SOUTHLAND - Step outside, even on hazy days, and the air won’t burn your eyes or sear your lungs.

Forty years ago, before the South Coast Air Quality Management District was formed, there were no such guarantees.

Smog hung like a blanket over parts of the South Coast Air Basin. On some particularly awful days, visibility could be as little as a few blocks.

Because of the geography, some parts of Southern California are cleaner than others. Ocean breezes send pollution generated in Orange County inland to San Bernardino and Riverside counties. There, it gets trapped against the San Bernardino Mountains.

Decades of efforts to clean up emissions from car tailpipes and factory smokestacks have paid off in bringing breathable air to Southern California. In 1976, according to one metric, Southern California exceeded federal ozone standards on 213 days. In 2014, only 92 days exceeded the standard, according to the Orange County Register.

But the region still has the some of the worst air quality in the nation, and it is out of compliance with federal ozone standards. As state and regional regulators move toward even tighter restrictions on emissions, industry is pushing back, claiming new rules will increase costs and crimp growth and employment, the Register reported.

That battle over air quality has been front and center in Sacramento this year.

During the summer, the oil industry managed to kill provisions in SB350 – a far-ranging energy and climate change bill designed to reduce carbon emissions – that would have cut petroleum use in half by 2030.

Activists’ efforts to persuade Gov. Jerry Brown to ban the controversial oil drilling process of fracking – which some believe releases toxic air emissions – also were thwarted. That left “fracktivists” to pursue local bans in places like Brea. (Source: Orange County Register)

Story Date: December 6, 2015