White House Loosens Clean Air Rules
Fri Nov 22, 3:52 PM ET
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By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration on Friday eased clean
air rules to allow utilities, refineries and manufacturers to avoid having to
install expensive new anti-pollution equipment when they modernize their
plants.
The long-awaited regulation issued by the
Environmental Protection agency was immediately attacked by
environmentalists, state air quality regulators and
attorneys general in several Northeast state who
promised a lawsuit to try to reverse the action.
But EPA Administrator Christie Whitman rejected
critics' claims that the changes would produce
dirtier air, saying in a statement they would encourage emission reductions
by providing utilities and refinery operators new flexibility.
She said the old program has "deterred companies from implementing
projects that would increase energy efficiency and decrease air pollution."
A group of Northeastern states, led by New York and Connecticut, said they
planned to file suit challenging the changes. In New York, Attorney General
Eliot Spitzer accused the administration of attacking the Clean Air Act with
rules that would further degrade air quality in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic
states downwind from industrial plants.
"The Bush administration is again putting the financial interests of the oil,
gas and coal companies above the public's right to breathe clean air," he
said.
The rule changes, which have been a top priority of the White House, are
aimed at making it easier for utilities and refinery operators to change
operations and expand production without installing new emission controls.
Industry has argued that the old EPA regulations known as "New Source
Review" under the Clean Air Act have hindered operation and prevented
efficiency improvements.
The new EPA regulation will allow industry to:
_Set higher limits for the amount of pollution that can be released by
calculating emissions on a plant-wide basis rather than for individual pieces
of equipment.
_Rely on the highest historical pollution levels during the past decade when
figuring whether a facility's overall pollution increase requires new controls.
_Avoid having to update pollution controls if there has already been a
government review of existing ones within the past 10 years.
_Exempt increased output of secondary contaminants that result from new
pollution controls for other emissions.
In addition, the agency is proposing a new way of defining what constitutes
"routine maintenance, repair and replacement" - key language that helps
determine when the regulations should kick in and is particularly important
for aging coal-fired power plants.
The EPA plans to grant power plants, factories and refineries an annual
"allowance" for maintenance. Only when expenditures rise above that
allowance would an owner or operator have to install new pollution control
equipment. Replacement of existing equipment would be considered
maintenance.
The administration said the new maintenance treatment "will offer facilities
greater flexibility to improve and modernize their operations in ways that will
reduce energy use and air pollution."
However, Vickie Patton, an attorney with Environmental Defense, said the
changes amount to "a sweeping and unprecedented erosion of state and
local power to protect the public health from air pollution" by thousands of
power plants, oil refineries and industrial facilities.
"They're going to do everything they can not only to roll these rules back at
the federal level but to force states to dismantle clean air programs that have
been in place for years," she said.
The changes were sought by the utility, coal and oil industries, and were the
subject of months of review at the White House. The electric utility and coal
industries were both major donors to Republicans for the 2002 and 2000
elections.
Electric companies and their employees contributed at least $11 million to
the GOP in the 2001-02 election cycle, more than twice as much as they
gave Democrats, according to figures compiled by the Center for Responsive
Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign finance.
Coal companies and their employees made at least $1.9 million in political
contributions in that period, with more than $8 of every $10 going to
Republicans, the center found.
Bush's 2000 presidential campaign was also a major beneficiary of the
industries' largess. Several energy executives raised at least $100,000 each
for Bush's campaign, and the energy industry, including electric and mining
companies, gave more than $2.8 million.
Many of the fund-raisers and donors were members of Bush's transition
team, weighing in on energy and environmental policy as the president set
up his administration.
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