 Don't Gut The
Clean Air Act Eliot Spitzer Attorney General of New York Sharon Basco
produced this piece, July 11, 2002 President
Bush has proposed gutting a key provision of the federal Clean Air Act.
If he is successful, it will mean dirtier air for all Americans. Coal-burning power plants are major sources of air pollution that contribute to summertime smog, acid rain, respiratory distress and cardiovascular disease. To combat these environmental and public health threats, I and other state Attorneys General sued a number of utilities in 1998 and 1999 to require their compliance with a key section of the Clean Air Act known as New Source Review. New Source Review requires that when old power plants undergo major modifications or upgrades they must also install state-of-the-art air pollution controls. The power plants we are suing did not do that. These are strong lawsuits. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) joined them and brought additional cases. But soon after President Bush took office, lobbyists for the coal and oil industries began work to undermine the lawsuits. They know the law is strong, so they are attempting to change it, by urging EPA to administratively gut the program and by asking Congress to repeal this section of the law. Unfortunately, they found a willing ally in the Bush administration. President Bush has now proposed gutting New Source Review in exchange for a weaker, badly flawed approach. Under his proposal, power plants could replace multi-million dollar boilers, effectively rebuilding the facility, without installing pollution controls -- readily available equipment that will reduce air pollution by over 90 percent. Congress clearly wanted to move the country to cleaner air either by having dirty old plants replaced by cleaner new ones or by requiring that if the old plants are refurbished, they install modern air pollution controls. It is troubling that EPA -- the very agency with a legal mandate to protect public health and the environment -- wants to open large loopholes in the Clean Air Act. To provide cover as he attempts to dismantle the Clean Air Act, President Bush has also proposed a new program called "Clear Skies." This would allow dirty power plants and other sources of pollution to buy pollution credits from cleaner plants, rather than install pollution controls on their own smokestacks. This approach would damage the northeast and communities near coal-burning power plants and would achieve little real improvements for a generation. Despite much fanfare when it was announced in April, "Clear Skies" still has not been introduced in the Congress. The overall Bush plan would leave the skies cloudy for another generation. I will challenge these illegal changes in Court to maintain the health and environmental protections intended by the law. This is New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for TomPaine.com. Source:
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5975
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