Koff, Koff

Los Angeles is the smog capital of the U.S. again, even though we actually had fewer smoggy days this year.

The L.A. Times exhales:

Houston and California's San Joaquin Valley, which in recent years rivaled and even surpassed L.A. as the smoggiest areas in the country, experienced exceptionally clean air this year.

As a result, the Greater Los Angeles region is again home to the worst smog in the nation, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's latest barometer for measuring the unhealthful haze — a dubious distinction the region has held for most of the last half-century.

Air quality in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties has exceeded the federal health standard for more than 2 1/2 months this year.

"It's a tough job cleaning up the ozone at this point because there are not a lot of easy emissions to target," said Joe Cassmassi, planning and rules manager for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the region's chief smog-fighting agency. "The low-hanging fruit, as a lot of people like to say, has been taken."