UW professor Tracey Holloway, an expert on air quality, energy, and the environment, called in to the Monday 8 o’Clock Buzz to discuss the announcement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of new, tighter air quality standards. The EPA’s new rules set particles smaller than 2.5 microns – known as P2.5 – from twelve micrograms per cubic meter to nine.

Two weeks later, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case challenging 2015 regulations governing ozone emissions. Given the court’s conservative bent, most observers expect the court to overturn the EPA’s ruling.

Particulate air pollution, commonly known as soot, contributes to asthma and other chronic illnesses.

Tracey Holloway is the Jeff Rudd and Jeanne Bissell Professor of Energy Analysis and Policy at the University of Wisconsin Madison, jointly appointed in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences.

Photo of Tracey Holloway. Source: University of Wisconsin website.

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