EPA lawyers to drop investigations under new rules

[Marlena]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/06/po...rint&position=

A change in enforcement policy will lead the Environmental Protection Agency to drop investigations into 50 power plants for past violations of the Clean Air Act, lawyers at the agency who were briefed on the decision this week said.

The lawyers said in interviews on Wednesday that the decision meant the cases would be judged under new, less stringent rules set to take effect next month, rather than the stricter rules in effect at the time the investigations began.

The lawyers said the new rules include exemptions that would make it almost impossible to sustain the investigations into the plants, which are scattered around the country and owned by 10 utilities.

The lawyers said the change grew out of a recommendation by Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, which urged the government two years ago to study industry complaints about its enforcement actions. The Bush administration has said its goal is to ensure cost-effective improvements to air quality.

[SpiralWoman]

Marlena~
I am so glad you posted something like this. Most people do not think about the damage or good our chief executive branch can do without ever tipping his cap toward Capital Hill. Isn't it sick how the *laws of our land* go under funded & unenforced & misinterpreted???

I think that if the new administration (using positve visualization here) wants to create jobs, they should just hire enough people to fully carry out the mandate created in departments like the EPA, to name just this one agency.

Sigh. Maria

[Marlena]

I know this hasn't been a huge hot topic here, but for those who care, 14 states filed suit to block the new rules:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/17/na...rint&position=

The previous E.P.A. rules, known as New Source Review regulations, had generally required older coal-fired power plants and oil refineries to add new pollution controls if they were modernized in ways that increased harmful emissions.

But the revised standards create substantial exemptions for the industry and would halt investigations at more than 50 power plants owned by 10 different utilities, E.P.A. enforcement lawyers say.

Any modifications costing up to 20 percent of the replacement cost of the unit will be considered routine maintenance, and therefore exempt from pollution controls, Mr. Spitzer said in a statement on Oct. 27, "even if the plant modification results in much higher levels of air pollution."

...

"The Oct. 27 action and today's action are like a two-pronged approach to what from our perspective is the same problem," Mark Violette, a spokesman in Albany for Mr. Spitzer, said.

"We went into court on Oct. 27 and we said essentially this is illegal," Mr. Violette said. "We are suing the Bush administration and the E.P.A., and we will show in the course of a lawsuit, a trial, a) why this rule is injurious to the health of Americans and to the environment, and b) will show why the way the Bush administration did this is illegal."

[IslandMamma]

Speaking of power plants, the EPA and Bush's never-ending quest for destruction--

In less than 48 hours his energy bill is slated to pass-- this will be distrous on so many counts. The only way to stop it is to call your senators and urge a filibuster! Go! now!

Try www.moveon.org for more info on the bill and the phone numbers of your senators....