[Date Prev][Date Next][Date Index]
GLIN==> G.W. Bush Tries to Trash Clean Air Act
- Subject: GLIN==> G.W. Bush Tries to Trash Clean Air Act
- From: "Alex J. Sagady & Associates" <ajs@sagady.com>
- Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 12:02:21 -0400
- Delivered-To: glin-announce-archive@glc.org
- Delivered-To: glin-announce@great-lakes.net
- List-Name: GLIN-Announce
G.W. Bush is about to sign a rule repealing a provision
to control air pollution from plant modifications that has
been in effect for the last 25 years.....
========
Yesterday Tanja Vujic at EIP and John Walke at NRDC sent a letter to
President Bush. The text of the letter, and the text of an accompanying
press release, appear below.
August 26, 2003
BY FACSIMILE
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear President Bush:
We write with the urgent request that you direct Acting EPA
Administrator Marianne Horinko not to promulgate any version of the New
Source Review (NSR) "equipment replacement" rule that EPA submitted to the
White House Office of Management and Budget on August 1, 2003.
In comments submitted to EPA on May 2, 2003, environmental and public
health advocates, including the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) and
the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), demonstrated that the NSR
rule that EPA now intends to issue would severely weaken the Clean Air
Act's NSR program, and, as a result, inflict acute harm on public health
and the environment. Our comments showed that the exemption that the
agency now plans to finalize would have excused all of the
pollution-increasing activities that EPA itself found to be harmful and
unlawful in its enforcement proceedings against the Tennessee Valley
Authority (TVA). Using data from the record of those proceedings, we
calculated that over 390,000 tons of illegal emissions resulted from just
three of the nine TVA projects at issue. This analysis was just one of the
means by which we showed that EPA's new rule, which applies to some 17,000
major sources of air pollution, would allow massive increases in industrial
air pollution and harm the health and welfare of the American public.
On August 7, the United States District Court for the Southern District of
Ohio held in United States v. Ohio Edison Co. that if a rule exempted the
pollution-increasing projects proven in that case, the rule would "vitiate
the very language of the [Clean Air Act] itself." Using the court's
factual findings, we have determined that the new EPA exemption would have
exempted all but one of those projects. The Ohio Edison decision thus
necessitates the conclusion that EPA's "equipment replacement" exemption
violates the Clean Air Act.
Yesterday, the General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report concluding
that EPA lacked sufficient data to support its conclusion that changes to
the NSR program are necessary. The GAO determined that the entire basis
for EPA's revisions to the NSR program rests "on anecdotal information
rather than a comprehensive survey or representative sample of industries
subject to the program." The GAO confirmed what we have repeatedly
asserted - that EPA lacks a factual grounding for its arguments that these
changes will improve air quality. The GAO explained that although some
newly permitted projects might increase the efficiency of some facilities,
"companies often expand production after implementing energy efficient
projects" which "could increase emissions and related health risks." The
GAO's report is consistent with the National Academy of Public
Administration's (NAPA's) April report on NSR. NAPA determined, like the
GAO, that EPA lacked key data on the NSR program and its benefits, and
erroneously relied on anecdotal reports about its economic and
environmental effects. At a minimum, EPA should take the GAO's findings,
as well as the NAPA report, into account before moving forward with this
rulemaking.
Notwithstanding the clear indications that the "equipment replacement"
exemption is an unlawful threat to the wellbeing of the American public,
EPA elected to send a draft final version of the rule to the Office of
Management and Budget on August 1. Upon learning last week that EPA
planned to disregard our comments and promulgate the rule before Labor Day,
we immediately requested a meeting with Acting Administrator Horinko. She
has twice refused to meet with us. We therefore ask that you direct the
acting administrator not to finalize the rule. We also request your
assurance that when a new EPA administrator is confirmed, you will direct
him or her to conduct a thorough review of the rule. The new appointee
should not sign the rule unless and until EPA demonstrates, through
thorough, quantitative analysis, that the rule will not allow pollution
increases to a greater extent than current law allows, and will not
adversely impact public health or the environment.
Sincerely,
Tatjana Vujic John D. Walke
Counsel Director
Environmental Integrity Project Clean Air
Program
Natural
Resources Defense Council
cc: Marianne L. Horinko, Acting Administrator, U.S. EPA
James L. Connaughton, Esq., Council on Environmental Quality
Dr. John Graham, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Enclosures (2)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Nadia Khatchadourian
Tuesday, August 26, 2003 Nadiak@mrss.com
<mailto:Nadiak@mrss.com>, 202-478-6187
ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS URGE BUSH TO DIRECT EPA TO ABANDON DAMAGING NSR RULE
Acting EPA Administrator Refuses to Meet with Public
Washington, DC - The Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) and the Natural
Resources Defense Council (NRDC) today called upon President Bush to direct
the acting administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
Marianne L. Horinko, to abandon the agency's planned "equipment
replacement" exemption, which would severely weaken the Clean Air Act's New
Source Review (NSR) program. In a letter sent today to President Bush, EIP
and NRDC criticized EPA for disregarding comments submitted on behalf of
several organizations, and for ignoring the General Accounting Office's
finding that EPA had no factual basis to make the changes. The letter
informs the president that EPA's action would violate his administration's
responsibility to uphold and enforce unambiguous Congressional mandates in
the Clean Air Act, and it asks him to halt adoption of the new NSR
rule. The groups also urged President Bush to direct his nominee for EPA
administrator, Governor Michael Leavitt of Utah, to review the proposed
rule. Ms. Horinko has twice refused to meet with EIP and NRDC to discuss
the impending finalization of the rule.
"The proposed rule cuts the heart out of the Clean Air Act by authorizing
big emission increases when plants are upgraded, even though EPA has argued
in their enforcement actions against utilities that loopholes this big
violate the law," said Eric Schaeffer, director of EIP. "Governor Leavitt
or whoever the next EPA administrator is really needs to sort this out."
News reports indicate that Horinko plans to sign the NSR rule regulating
power plant and other industrial emissions by Wednesday, August 27. Given
the adverse impacts that the rule would have on air quality and public
health, EIP and NRDC twice asked to meet with Horinko. She has refused
those requests.
"When it comes to gutting the Clean Air Act for the benefit of corporate
polluters, the Bush administration's motto appears to be, 'Damn the public,
full speed ahead,'" said John Walke, director of the Clean Air Program at
NRDC.
The proposed changes to the NSR rule would exempt from the Clean Air Act
massive pollution increases at some 17,000 industrial plants, allowing the
facilities to undertake extensive equipment replacement projects without
having to install modern pollution controls. Current rules require all
major emission sources to install pollution control devices whenever they
modify their plants in ways that increases emissions. Only those projects
that qualify under a narrow "routine maintenance" exemption are
excluded. The effect of the new rule is one that the United States
District Court for the Southern District of Ohio recently held would
"vitiate the very language of the [Clean Air Act] itself."
# # #
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alex J. Sagady & Associates http://www.sagady.com
Environmental Enforcement, Permit/Technical Review, Public Policy,
Evidence Review and Litigation Investigation on Air, Water and
Waste/Community Environmental and Resource Protection
Prospectus at: http://www.sagady.com/sagady.pdf
PO Box 39, East Lansing, MI 48826-0039
(517) 332-6971; (517) 332-8987 (fax); ajs@sagady.com
==========================================
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
glin-announce is hosted by the Great Lakes Information Network (GLIN):
http://www.great-lakes.net
To subscribe: http://www.glin.net/forms/glin-announce_form.html
To post a message: http://www.glin.net/forms/glin-announce_post.html
To search the archive: http://www.glin.net/lists/glin-announce/
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *