EPA chief says Bush emissions cuts would save lives
Date: 03-Jul-02
Country: USA
Author: Tom Doggett
The administration proposal would reduce three kinds of air pollution from electric generating plants by an estimated 70 percent, compared to a Senate plan calling for faster, deeper cuts.
Environmental groups say the White House plan would weaken existing clean air rules to benefit the energy firms that were big contributors to George W. Bush's presidential campaign.
New data from the Environmental Protection Agency predicted the Bush plan would reduce enough sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury emissions to avoid 12,000 premature deaths a year and bring $96 billion in human health and visibility benefits by 2020.
"The new data show that we can improve the quality of the air we breathe and achieve these results faster, at less cost to consumers and in a way that makes sense for the environment, for industry and for the health of the American people," said EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman.
At the same time Whitman promoted the White House's pollution plan, Democrats released a report from the EPA that showed the administration failed to fund almost three dozen toxic industrial sites for cleanup under the federal Superfund program. EPA's regional offices requested about $450 million in Superfund cleanup funds for the current budget year, but the administration allocated about $224 million, the report said.
UTILITY POLLUTION PLANS DIFFER
Environmental issues are expected to figure in some of the congressional elections in November that will determine control of the U.S. House and Senate.
One of the most controversial issues is the best way to curb air pollution from aging coal-fired utilities.
The Bush proposal would set a 2017 deadline to cut sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury by about 70 percent. The president opposes any limit on carbon dioxide, blamed by many scientists for slowly raising the temperature of the earth.
Senate Democrats prefer an approach requiring deeper cuts by 2008. Their plan would also include limits on emissions of carbon dioxide that is linked to global warming.
However, Whitman doubted the plan authored by Sen. Jim Jeffords, a Vermont independent, would have the votes to pass the Congress.
The White House plan, first announced in February, would nearly eliminate the most severe impacts of acid rain in the Northeast, according to Whitman. It would reduce the number of lakes in the Adirondack Mountains harmed by acid rain from the current 25 percent to just 3 percent.
Whitman unveiled the new details about the president's proposal during a visit to the Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. Visitors to the park once could admire the vista for as much as 100 miles but now have an average visibility of just 15 miles because of pollution.
Congress would have to approve the Bush plan for it to be implemented.
The White House will send its legislative proposal to lawmakers this month, Whitman said. The plan faces an uphill battle to win approval due to Democratic opposition to the proposal and less than 30 working days remaining in Congress before lawmakers adjourn in early October.
Environmental groups slammed the new EPA data.
The Clean Air Trust said Whitman "cooked the books" to make the administration's utility pollution plan seem more favorable.