The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just announced a proposal for more stringent restrictions on smog.

The EPA’s new smog limits will immediately result in hundreds of counties in the US being in violation. This will leave counties across the US with the options of cleaning up their smog issues or of suffering the loss of federal highway money.

These stricter smog restrictions represent the recommendations of the scientific community, which had previously been presented to and rejected by the Bush Administration after pressure from electric utilities.

While these stricter guidelines will cost the US tens of billions of dollars to follow through on, the EPA has stated that it will save billions in medical costs for emergency room visits, missed work and school, not to mention premature death.

This just in, water is wet, fire is hot and greenhouse gasses are dangerous to humans. After a long discussion with Captain Obvious the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just ruled that six greenhouse gases, are harmful to human health. Carbon dioxide along with five other greenhouse gases will be listed with the other pollutants controlled by the Clean Air Act.

The official EPA report lists greenhouse gases as being responsible for increasing drought, flooding, heat waves and wildfires, increase in sea level rising, increased storm intensity, and finally damage to water resources, agriculture and ecosystems.

While no decision has been made on how greenhouse gases should be regulated, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has already suggested that each state will be allowed to produce greenhouse gas regulations of their own.

The Environmental Protection Agency is working with the federal government to require companies to start disclosing the amount of greenhouse gases they release into the atmosphere.

On Tuesday, the EPA proposed mandatory reporting of the gases blamed for global warming from approximately 13,000 companies that are large emitters of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, such as oil refiners and automobile manufacturers, in the U.S. Under the new regulations, companies would be required to begin auditing their own greenhouse gas emissions as of 2010.

“We do not expect to have a significant impact on small businesses,” said Dina Kruger, the director of the agency’s climate change division.

Currently, the EPA only requires reporting of greenhouse gases only from power plants. It also releases an annual inventory that merely estimates the CO2 released from other large corporations such as those in transportation and electricity production.

“Our efforts to confront climate change must be guided by the best possible information,” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a statement announcing the proposed regulation.

The Huffington Post reports that the Obama administration is seeking to enforce more regulation when it comes to mercury pollution produced by power plants, reversing the plan made by the Bush administration, which had allowed utilities to purchase emission credits instead of actually reducing emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency added that it would instigate new regulations limiting mercury emissions from power plants, which are the leading source of mercury.

“It is yet another Bush administration policy they are not going to go forward with,” said David Bookbinder, the Sierra Club’s chief climate counsel.

The EPA will also be reviewing the Bush administration’s decision to deny California and other states the right to control emissions of cars largely responsible for global warming.