The Casper Star-Tribune reports that “as many as eight Wyoming counties could exceed the federal standard for safe air quality if, as expected, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposes lowering its threshold on ozone pollution later this year.  

“Many factors remain undetermined. EPA will not finalize the rule until 2015. Then it needs to embark on a new round of air quality monitoring before determining what regions are in violation of the new standard. Exceptional events — those rare high pollution days that skew an area’s air quality averages — also need to be accounted for before a decision is made.”  

The piece continues: “Environmentalists said that news should be a call to action, prompting the state to improve its air quality before the federal government forces it do so. State officials said it is too early to tell where EPA is headed, but added they are monitoring the discussions. And a top oil and gas lobbyist questioned the revision altogether, asking how much more Wyoming can reasonably be expected to improve the quality of its air.”