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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (364394)	2/27/2003 4:21:23 PM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Your Republican Senator - Gregg - opposes Bush on his so called Clear Skies Initiative. President's Clear Skies may get stormy reception By KATHERINE DAVIDSON Special to The Union Leader WASHINGTON—Supporters of President Bush’s Clear Skies proposal were expected in the next few days to resubmit legislation to Congress that environmental experts say would no longer allow states and the Environmental Protection Agency to continually upgrade air pollution regulations. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., opposed the President’s initiative when it was introduced — and rejected — last year and has said he is poised to introduce alternative legislation with Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-RI, that would uphold state regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, which environmentalists say contribute to global warming. Gregg said in December that the legislation also would reduce emissions of greenhouse gases — sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide — produced by energy plants in the Midwest and carried by the winds to the Northeast. “New Hampshire has a superb clean air law; however, under the new regulations proposed by the administration, New Hampshire’s law could be undermined,” Gregg said in a statement last December. “This makes no sense. If states like New Hampshire are willing to go the extra mile by enacting strong state regulations, they should not be prevented from doing so.” The reintroduction of the Clear Skies proposal comes after a panel of experts commissioned by the National Academy of Sciences released a report Tuesday criticizing the Bush administration’s Climate Change Research Plan, saying it lacked clear long-term vision and would not adequately help legislators make informed policy decisions. Mark Wenzler, director of energy programs at the National Environmental Trust in Washington, said he does not expect the President’s Clear Skies proposal to receive much support in Congress and said Tuesday’s NAS report shows that the administration has failed to create a “better plan,” as promised, to deal with climate change. If adopted, the Clear Skies proposal would replace the Clean Air Act, which is up for reauthorization this year. In place since 1970, the Clean Air Act, Wenzler said, is a “flexible” program that continually adapts air quality regulations and allows states to implement their own plans to reduce emissions. Bush’s proposal would eliminate programs under the act that are intended to continually reduce pollution and replace them with a one-time cap on emissions, he said. Jan Pendlebury, director of the New Hampshire office of the Environmental Trust, said any new legislation must include the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, which Gregg supports but which is not called for under the Clear Skies proposal. Pendlebury praised Gregg for recently securing $19.25 million for air quality research projects in New Hampshire, but she and Wenzler said research should not be a substitute for action. (Katherine Davidson is an intern with the Boston University News Service in Washington.)