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Bush Administration Attacks Clean Air Act Statement by Nat Mund, Clean Air Expert, Sierra Club's Environmental Quality Program "Today, the Bush administration announced changes that would dramatically weaken the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review program - a key clean air protection that requires aging coal-fired power plants, oil refineries and other industrial facilities to install modern pollution controls when they make changes or expand in a way that increases pollution. "The loss of this program means the loss of an important tool in the fight for safe air. The Bush administration needs to enforce the law, hold polluters accountable, and require them to use today's technology to protect our health and safety. "When enforced, New Source Review has been an effective tool for forcing power plants, refineries, and factories to install modern pollution equipment. This is why the oil, coal and power companies which own those polluting facilities have been so interested in rewriting the rules. "This latest attack by the Bush administration to dismantle NSR comes from a new angle. The proposal will allow polluting power utilities to make changes that increase the total amount of pollution released each year if it is done in a way that does not increase the rate of pollution released. By doing this, they can avoid installing modern pollution control technology. Simply put, a power utility could refurbish a plant so that it does not release more pollution per hour, but could double the operating time thus releasing more pollution over the course of the year. "Furthermore, the EPA is saying that any potential increases in air pollution that the proposal causes would be handled under the recently adopted Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) However, EPA’s own models suggest that CAIR will not be sufficient to ensure that every community is breathing clean air." # # # |
