Bush EPA Slows Enforcement of Power Plant Air Pollution Rules

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> Tue, 27 Jul 2004 13:10:55 GMT

> " BushGreenwatch " <info

 

> Bush EPA Slows Enforcement of Power Plant

> Air Pollution Rules

>

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> BUSHGREENWATCH

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> July 27, 2004

>

> BUSH EPA SLOWS ENFORCEMENT OF POWER PLANT AIR

> POLLUTION RULES

>

> Between 1999 and 2001, the Clinton administration

> filed lawsuits

> alleging violations at 51 electric power plants

> owned by nine

> utilities. Several of the cases were settled, but

> most have

> stalled out under the Bush administration.

>

> The lawsuits involve the issue of New Source Review

> (NSR), under

> which utilities are required to add modern new air

> pollution

> controls when they expand or upgrade their

> facilities.

>

> But when Greenwire reporter Darren Samuelson

> recently reported

> on a document leaked by a disgruntled EPA

> enforcement employee

> containing the names of 22 utilities that have

> allegedly ducked

> the NSR requirements over the last five years, news

> stories

> began reporting that those utilities might be facing

> enforcement

> actions by EPA. [1]

>

> Not a chance, said Eric Schaeffer, who quit his post

> as EPA's

> top enforcement officer two years ago in protest

> over the Bush

> administration's reversals on environmental

> protection. " The

> word inside the agency is that Leavitt (EPA

> Administrator Mike

> Leavitt) is furious that this news is out, "

> Schaeffer told GRIST

> magazine. " In fact it's a political embarrassment.

> It just shows

> how the administration is holding up prosecutions

> recommended by

> its own staff. "

>

> Indeed Bush's assistant administrator for air and

> radiation at

> EPA, Jeffrey Holmstead, has made it his top priority

> to cripple

> the NSR rule. He has already loosened the way

> smokestack

> industries measure their baseline emissions under

> the rule. And

> in total-wipeout mode, Holmstead shepherded through

> a rule

> change that actually exempted power plants from

> installing

> state-of-the-art pollution controls when they

> upgrade. That

> coup, however, was at least temporarily blocked when

> a group of

> state attorneys general won a stay in D.C. circuit

> court.

>

> The leaked list of 22 possible violators includes

> some of the

> nation's largest power producers, such as Reliant

> (now

> Centerpoint Energy), Allegheny, and subsidiaries of

> the Southern

> Company. " We've known about these cases for a

> while, " says

> Schaeffer, who now heads the Environmental Integrity

> Project. " A

> lot of them have been sitting for years because

> there's been a

> mandate from the White House to keep them from

> happening. "

>

> Another obstacle is the fact that the Justice

> Department lacks

> sufficient funding to pursue more than 15

> environment-related

> cases per year. It is already in the process of

> suing eight

> large companies over NSR issues. Justice has

> requested a

> 39-percent increase in its budget for Environment

> and Natural

> Resources, and Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT) plans to

> request that

> the Senate Judiciary Committee press for those

> funds.

>

> ###

>

> This story was jointly produced by BushGreenwatch

> and Grist

> Magazine. For more on this story, visit Grist

> Magazine:

> http://ga3.org/ct/q1zkGk91GQTY/.

>

> ###

>

> SOURCES:

> [1] " Second Wave of NSR Cases Await Bush

> Administration Action, "

> Greenwire, Jul. 14, 2004,

> http://ga3.org/ct/17zkGk91GQTQ/.

>

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