California's San Joaquin Valley no longer has to meet old ozone pollution rules

The US environmental regulators have approved California's plan to meet a revoked 1979 ozone pollution standard in the San Joaquin Valley. This means the valley no longer has to follow rules designed to clean up air that was already considered clean.

For years, the San Joaquin Valley had to keep proving it met an air quality standard that the US environmental regulators had already replaced with a stricter one. This created a bureaucratic burden without improving air quality. Now, the valley can focus its resources on meeting current, more protective standards.