Bob Tippee
Only in politics. Only in an election year.
The US Environmental Protection Agency wants to fix regulations that discourage refiners from changing plants to meet demand for fuels required by air-quality programs. And opposition politicians misrepresent the repair as a threat to air quality and public health.
EPA on June 13 moved to change troublesome parts of the New Source Review (NSR) program established under the Clean Air Act.
"Once again," wailed House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri, "White House political considerations have trumped our nation's commitment to promoting clean air and improving public health of millions."
What nonsense.
As it affects refiners, EPA's action addresses two main problems.
It tries to clarify an exemption from NSR permitting for routine maintenance and repairs. And it changes a nonutility emissions trigger for NSR permitting that, refiners argue, incorrectly presumes that any refinery activity increases pollution.
During the Clinton administration, EPA tightened NSR enforcement, mainly by narrowing its interpretation of what constitutes routine maintenance. Many of the affected projects involved production of fuel required by the Clean Air Act. Refiners thus have hesitated to undertake new projects needed if they're to meet new fuel specifications and keep up with demand.
All EPA now wants to do is make NSR work for rather than against air quality. It doesn't propose to throw out the program. It doesn't change air-quality goals.
But it has been greeted with outrage anyway.
Sen. James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.), calling the EPA move "devastating" to the environment, promises to subpoena administration officials to found out how the decision came about. That means yet another tiresome disclosure that somebody who contributed to a political campaign discussed policy with somebody in a position of authority.
New York's attorney general plans to sue the administration.
So goes environmental politics, in which politics gets more priority than the environment. As the quality of American air improves, the political debate about it deteriorates.
The country's biggest air-quality challenge, in fact, is no longer ozone smog, carbon monoxide, or acid rain. It's political demagoguery.
(Online June 14, 2002; author's email: [email protected])