Last month Schaeffer resigned from the EPA's Office of Regulatory Enforcement to protest what he said was the Bush administration's move to weaken pollution laws.

A utility group, the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, dismissed Schaeffer's study as wrongly attempting to link deaths to utility pollution and ignoring other factors.

Schaeffer's report centered on the utilities accused of violating the EPA's so-called "new source review" rule. The rule sets how far a utility can go to enlarge or upgrade an old coal-fired plant before investing in expensive devices to control smog, acid rain and soot.

The Bush administration has ordered the EPA to reconsider the new source rule.

Meanwhile, settlement talks in pending cases have screeched to a halt as utilities sense changing political winds.

Schaeffer and other critics say the administration has failed to weigh the health impact of relaxing pollution rules.

"Many children and families suffer the misery of asthma, bronchitis and even premature death because of the pollution coming from these eight utilities," Schaeffer said.

EIGHT UTILITIES ANALYZED

In November 1999, the Clinton administration sued nine Midwestern and Southern utilities to enforce the new source review portion of the 1970 Clean Air Act.

Schaeffer's study singled out eight utilities which have not yet settled the lawsuits filed by the Justice Department.

American Electric Power Co. was identified in the report as the company responsible for the most deaths at 1,400 annually. It was followed by Southern Co. at 1,200 and the Tennessee Valley Authority at 780.

The study also had a state-by-state breakdown of deaths likely caused by emissions from the eight utilities. Pennsylvania topped the list with 550 annually, followed by Ohio with 480 and North Carolina with 400.

The study was done by Abt Associates Inc., a consulting firm used by the EPA for its own analyses, Schaeffer said.

"This represents the low end of the range we could have used (on mortality)," Schaeffer said. "These companies would be a lot closer to cleaning up their acts if the White House could find the courage to say no to the energy lobbyists and enforce the law."

The utility industry attacked the report's methodology and called its intent "spiteful."

"There's no generally accepted model that can produce the kind of causation that is implied by this study," said Scott Segal, a spokesman for the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council. The council is a lobbying group that includes Southern, FirstEnergy Corp. and Duke Energy Corp. , also named in the study.

Other companies named in the study were Vectren Corp.'s Southern Indiana Gas & Electric Co, Dynegy Inc.'s Illinois Power and Cinergy Corp. .

The federal government did settle a lawsuit last year with TECO Energy Inc. . TECO agreed to pay a $3.5 million fine and invest $1 billion in new pollution controls over a decade.