Naked City

Citizens who wish to comment on the Environmental Protection Agency's pending reconsideration of the "New Source Review" regulations of the federal Clean Air Act had better hurry. The comment period ends today (www.epa.gov/air/nsr-review), and following planned "stakeholders" meetings in D.C., the Bush administration has directed the agency to report its findings by Aug. 17. That will conclude a 90-day review to determine whether the rules requiring power plants and refineries to apply for permits and to strictly limit "new sources" of toxic emissions should be relaxed to address what the administration considers the current U.S. "energy crisis."

The review also included four public meetings (Cincinnati, Sacramento, Boston, and Baton Rouge) before EPA panels. Several Austinites who traveled to Baton Rouge for the July 20 hearing were alarmed at what they heard -- at least from industry representatives who testified. "They're ready to gut the Clean Air Act," said Neil Carman, Clean Air Director of the Sierra Club. "New Source Review covers utilities and refineries, but lobbyists from every polluting industry from chemicals to paper were there -- all the industry whores -- asking for a rollback of regulations. I think they're going to try to eliminate New Source Review."

Peter Altman of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition echoed Carman's remarks: "I think that the polluters are licking their chops because they believe that the Clean Air Act is going to be roasted and served on the table for them to tear to pieces." Altman said industry reps complained that the existing regulations are so onerous they cause companies to cancel expansion plans, yet studies indicate the opposite: Many new plants are being built, "and refineries and power plants are multiple [emission] violators, now trying to get their tickets fixed." Altman considers the review only "the first step of the chess game" for the Bush administration, which he says will need new legislation to accomplish its rollback, "and we're going to fight them every step of the way."

A spokesman for EPA in Washington said that while a wide range of industrial reps as well as state and local government spokespeople attended the hearings, roughly two-thirds of the 265 witnesses were either environmentalists, public health spokespeople, or private citizens testifying in support of the Clean Air Act or of strengthening its new source emissions provisions. "We were certainly anticipating witnesses from refineries and utilities," said Jeff Clark of the agency's Air Policy Standards office. "But there were also representatives of the National Association of Manufacturers, paper and pulp companies, Boise Cascade, Alcoa, GM … They were essentially asking that if we give any flexibility on permitting, that we extend it to them because their work has energy implications."

Clark said it's too soon to say what will come out of the policy review, but that in fact the EPA has been conducting research, hearings, and public meetings on the policy "for the last seven or eight years." "Rather than act on that prior review by itself," he said, "the new administration decided to have one more relatively accelerated review, in order to deal with the energy situation." He said the agency will review input from the hearings, public comments posted to the Web site, and the ongoing stakeholders' meetings before it issues its August report.