State Governor Tom Corbett said Pennsylvania was part of an “ozone transport region”, a dozen Northeast US states that have some of the country’s most strict air pollution standards.

The petition is urging the US Environmental Protection Agency to hold other states up to the same rules. These states include Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

“My administration is strongly committed to protecting air quality and the health of Pennsylvania residents,” Corbett said.

“Signing this petition reflects that commitment and our hope is that the EPA will level the playing field by ensuring other states are being good neighbours by abiding to the same standards we have in Pennsylvania.”

Corbett joins a group of governors led by Delaware Governor Jack Markell that is telling federal regulators that the “upwind” states have for decades failed to install technology for organic compound emissions (VOCs) and those for nitrogen oxides (NOx).

The group already said the compounds contributed up to 98% of the ozone air pollution problems in their states.

The Pennsylvania governor noted that new states subjected to the administration’s air quality rules would have to submit a state implementation plan to the EPA within nine months, including a strategy to control ozone-producing emissions.

“Pennsylvania, along with the other states in the northeast, continues to work hard to attain acceptable levels of ozone emissions,” Department of Environmental Protection acting secretary Chris Abruzzo added.

“Part of the solution to this problem is to have the upwind states implement equally stringent air quality controls.”

The ozone transport region consists of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, the District of Columbia and northern Virginia.

The EPA said it would make a decision on the petition within 18 months.