Leahy Hits White House's Rollback of Clean Air Standards for Old
Power Plants
To: National and State Desks
Contact: David Carle of the Office of Sen. Patrick Leahy,
202-224-3693
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Sen. Patrick Leahy was
sharply critical of clean air rule changes unveiled Friday that
would make it easier for corporate polluters to increase emissions
from old power plants without any new pollution controls.
"It should surprise no one that EPA waited until after the
election and right before the holidays to foist this turkey on the
American people," he said.
The rollback of standards under the Clean Air Act's New Source
Review (NSR) Program were announced by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and were prompted by directives arising
from Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force, which decided to
accelerate the permitting process for industrial facilities at the
expense of air quality.
In July, the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Environment
and Public Works Committee, headed, respectively, by Leahy and Sen.
Jim Jeffords, held a joint hearing to examine how the Energy Task
Force's instructions to "review" NSR and the preliminary rules
proposed by EPA in June would affect pending litigation against NSR
violators. The panels also looked at how the proposed rule would
affect states' own efforts to reduce air pollution. State
attorneys general who testified at the July hearing said the
changes would undermine their states' abilities to clean their air
more than federal pollution standards would.
"Christmas is coming early this year for corporate polluters,"
said Leahy. "EPA cannot show how these changes will improve air
quality or reduce the health risks to children across the nation.
These changes are intended not to clean the air but to breathe new
life into old plants spewing toxic pollutants, and much of that
pollution is headed to New England. The Administration has
undermined a program whose original intent was to retire these
ancient plants long ago."
Leahy continued: "I had hoped that EPA Administrator Christine
Whitman would have gone back to her roots as an advocate for
states' rights and tougher clean air rules, but instead she is
letting corporate polluters off the legal hook that, in the past,
has lowered air pollution and led to million-dollar settlements
with some of the biggest offenders. This judicial bailout for
corporate polluters not only takes cleaner air as a hostage; it
also could mean that billions of dollars that would go to the
federal treasury from pending court cases will now be lost."
Interesting how Leahy explains." The Administration has
undermined a program whose original intent was to retire these
ancient plants long ago." They have accomplished just that.. When is the last time we saw a refinery build in the U.S.? The intent was not to correct the pollution but put the plants out of business. Loss of more jobs, less taxes, and of course you wouldn't get permits to rebuild for twenty or thirty years.
I understand all pending court cases are not lost only new cases will not be brought up. |
