Residents near factories sometimes rely on inexpensive air sensors of their own when official monitors are too few or not close enough to major industrial facilities.
New laws in Louisiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, however, limit how much that locally gathered information can matter in requests for regulatory enforcement, according to Floodlight.
Here’s what to know
Lawmakers in Louisiana, Ohio, and Kentucky started enacting closely aligned bills in 2024 with support from chemical and manufacturing trade associations.
Under those measures, enforcement cases cannot be based on air readings unless they come from monitors built to EPA-approved standards, devices that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars…