Since its adoption in 1970, the Clean Air Act has become one of the cornerstones of federal environmental policy. Naturally, sine 2001, it has emerged as one of the primary targets in the Bush administration's campaign to weaken environmental laws.
The first indication of what Bush had in mind came in March of 2001, when he reneged on a campaign promise to reduce power plant emissions. Requiring power plants to cut carbon dioxide emissions would simply be too costly, Bush says, declaring that the gas should not be considered a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. The second sign came just two months later, when the administration released its national energy plan. Among other things, the plan calls for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department to review the Act's New Source Review provision to determine if it is inhibiting the construction or expansion of power plants.
Under the New Source Review guidelines, older power plants were allowed to continue polluting above mandated levels until plant operators wanted to make 'significant upgrades.' Once the plant was upgraded, the rules required that it be brought in line with the Act's stringent emissions standards.
For years, plant operators had argued that the New Source Review rule was counter-productive, discouraging them from upgrading their oldest, most-polluting plants. And the administration has largely adopted that logic. By the fall of 2001, administration officials were saying they would 'reform' the New Source Review rules. A year later, on the Friday before Thanksgiving, at a pres conference from which news cameras were barred, the EPA released its proposed 'reforms'. And nine months after that, in August of 2003, the administration formally adopted those changes, exempting thousands of old power plants, refineries, and factories from the New Source Review provisions.
The rule will likely save industry billions of dollars. But at what cost? According to an Abt Associates study commissioned by the EPA, 9,000 lives could be saved if only 51 plants run by 8 companies were brought in line with the Act.
"The scale of this assault on public health is staggering," says David McIntosh, a staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The new rule will result in thousands of premature deaths and tens of thousands of asthma attacks in this country every year. This is the administration's most harmful rule change yet, and that is saying a lot."
E-mail article
Print article
