Bush's Clear Skies plan could replace new source review

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Bush May Nix Clinton Pollution Plan

3/20/2002

WASHINGTON, Mar 20, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The Bush administration

will propose abolishing a program begun under former President Clinton to

reduce air pollution from older power plants once a nationwide cap on

pollutants is set, EPA chief Christie Whitman said Wednesday.

The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency said the program no

longer would be needed for power plants if Congress approves President

Bush's " Clear Skies " plan. His proposal is intended to reduce the plants'

emissions of acid rain-causing sulfur dioxide, smog-causing nitrogen oxide

and mercury, a toxic chemical that contaminates waterways.

Bush said last month he wants to set mandatory ceilings on total industry

output and let companies earn and trade credits, with millions of tons of

emissions projected to be reduced.

If Congress goes along with the limits sought by Bush, the administration

then would ask lawmakers to abolish the Clinton program, known as new source

review, as it applies to power plants, Whitman said. But enforcement under

the program would continue for refineries, paper mills and other industrial

facilities, EPA spokesman Joe Martyak said.

Bush wants to cut the current 11 million tons of sulfur dioxide emissions

each year to 4.5 million tons by 2010 and 3 million tons by 2018; the 5

million tons of nitrogen oxide emissions annually to 2.1 million tons by

2008 and 1.7 million tons by 2018; and mercury emissions from 48 tons a year

to 26 tons by 2010 and 15 tons by 2018.

" If the numbers are what the president proposed, " Whitman said, and " we are

actually getting, as I indicated, better reductions than under the current

regulatory process ... then new source review would become redundant and

there would not be a need for it, " she said.

" That's not something we could do, that's something Congress would have to

consider. "

In 1999, EPA and Justice Department officials began a more vigorous

enforcement effort to make older power plants and refineries reduce their

pollution.

The Bush administration has drawn the ire of environmentalists and Democrats

in Congress while preparing rule changes that might discourage new

government lawsuits against operators of aging coal-fired power plants.

The EPA will begin announcing its final plans for overhauling that program

in the next few months.

Environmentalists and congressional Democrats have expressed grave concerns

about what the administration might do.

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Vermont Democrat Leahy,

contends that " special interests have been allowed to put their thumb " in

the proposal, upsetting the proper balance.

The Natural Resources Defense Council released internal EPA documents

Wednesday that the environmental group said shows the EPA plans to let

industries set fictional pollution-reduction targets while avoiding real

limits for a decade or more.

But Segal, an attorney for six large utilities, said the president's

approach makes obsolete the need for EPA's new source review for aging power

plants.

" Under a cap, old facilities and new facilities are treated the same, " he

said.

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On the Net:

Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov

National Resources Defense Council: http://www.nrdc.org

By JOHN HEILPRIN

Associated Press Writer

Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved