"Clear Skies" Coming Soon To Congress - WP

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"The White House plans to push Congress to retool the nation's air quality laws early next year, according to administration and industry officials.

The move has alarmed environmentalists, who fear that President Bush's "Clear Skies" proposal -- which has not moved in Congress since he unveiled it in 2002 -- would undercut existing federal standards more than the administration's pending plan to revise pollution controls through regulation.

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But several environmental advocates said the administration is undermining public health by delaying the interstate rule and pressing for legislation that, they said, would make it easier for companies to continue polluting. Clear Skies would represent the most sweeping changes in the Clean Air Act since 1990. "The Clean Air Act is now under a great threat from Congress, and delaying the interstate rule will fuel the fire that Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe is trying to light under Congress to go after the law," said Clean Air Watch President Frank O'Donnell, referring to the Oklahoma Republican.

In contrast to the "interstate" rule, which mainly affects states east of the Mississippi River and sets tighter controls on the two pollutants, the Clear Skies bill makes more sweeping changes to air quality enforcement and regulates mercury as well. The bill, which Inhofe hopes to put to a committee vote in February, would postpone deadlines for meeting public health standards on smog and fine-particle soot from 2009 to 2015 and would exempt affected smokestacks from "new source review" requirements that require plants to install stricter pollution controls when they upgrade their equipment."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62025-2004Dec13.html