Title: Background Ozone Research Act
Policy area: Environmental Protection

Summary:
Background Ozone Research Act
This bill directs the Environmental Protection Agency to seek to enter into an agreement with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine under which the National Academies shall conduct a study on the current and future research needs regarding background ozone (the ground-level ozone that would exist in the absence of any human-produced emissions).

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4656 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4656

 To direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to 
  seek to enter an agreement with the National Academies of Sciences, 
    Engineering, and Medicine to conduct a study on the science of 
     background ozone in the United States and to provide research 
recommendations to better understand background ozone contributions to 
              ground-level ozone, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 11, 2019

  Mr. McAdams (for himself and Mr. Rooney of Florida) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, 
                             and Technology

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to 
  seek to enter an agreement with the National Academies of Sciences, 
    Engineering, and Medicine to conduct a study on the science of 
     background ozone in the United States and to provide research 
recommendations to better understand background ozone contributions to 
              ground-level ozone, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Background Ozone Research Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Ground-level ozone, a type of tropospheric ozone, is 
        created when nitrogen oxides (NOX) and volatile organic 
        compounds (VOCs), emitted by motor vehicles, power plants, 
        other industrial processes, or natural processes like 
        wildfires, chemically react in the presence of ultraviolet (UV) 
        radiation from the Sun.
            (2) Ground-level ozone present in a given area may be 
        attributed to either local, human produced sources or sources 
        that are not local and human produced.
            (3) United States background ozone (hereafter referred to 
        as ``background ozone'') is the ground-level ozone that would 
        exist in the absence of any human-produced emissions inside the 
        United States.
            (4) Ground level ozone is considered a harmful pollutant 
        due to its effects on people and the environment and is the 
        main component of smog.
            (5) The American Thoracic Society estimated the annual 
        excess mortality due to ground-level ozone in the United States 
        at 3,880 individuals as of 2017.
            (6) Ground-level ozone has been linked to plant damages and 
        thus diminished crop yields.
            (7) A number of cities and regions in the United States 
        remain out of compliance with Environmental Protection Agency 
        (EPA) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for 
        ground-level ozone.
            (8) Further research would help to understand background 
        ozone trends and how to mitigate background ozone.

SEC. 3. STUDY ON BACKGROUND OZONE RESEARCH NEEDS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency 
shall seek to enter an agreement with the National Academies of 
Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (referred to in this Act as the 
``National Academies'') under which the National Academies shall 
conduct a study on the current and future research needs regarding 
background ozone. The study shall--
            (1) propose a framework of standard terms and definitions 
        for types of non-local ground level ozone, including types of 
        background ozone, to standardize research on ground-level 
        ozone;
            (2) examine the current understanding of background sources 
        of ozone and the contribution of such sources to ground-level 
        ozone in the United States to identify gaps in knowledge that 
        need to be addressed with additional research;
            (3) examine challenges in quantifying the sources of 
        background ozone and the contributions of each such source to 
        ground-level ozone on a regional scale in the United States and 
        identifies specific research needs to address these challenges;
            (4) include an outline of a plan for a research and 
        development program, including specifications for costs, 
        timeframes, and responsible agencies, to support analysis and 
        demonstration of background ozone trends, including by--
                    (A) improving collection and observational 
                infrastructure;
                    (B) improving confidence in model outputs;
                    (C) reducing uncertainties in estimates of 
                background ozone; and
                    (D) making background ozone research outputs more 
                useful and accessible to decision-makers; and
            (5) identify opportunities for international engagement 
        that may facilitate increased research collaborations that 
        improve understanding of ozone trends.
    (b) Report.--As a condition of any agreement under subsection (a), 
the Administrator shall require that the National Academies transmit to 
Congress a report on the results of the study under subsection (a) not 
later than 24 months after the date of enactment of this Act.
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