EPA eases clean air requirements on power plants

Friday, November 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Bush administration will ease clean air rules, allowing power plants and refineries to avoid new pollution controls when expanding operations, administration sources said Friday.

The long-awaited rule changes will ``increase energy efficiency and encourage emissions reductions,'' the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press.

An announcement of the rule change was to be made later in the day.

Environmentalists and a group of Northeastern states said they plan to file suit immediately challenging the changes. The state officials contend that the easing of the clean air requirements ``will undermine efforts'' to meet air quality standards.

The rule changes, which have been a top priority of the White House, are aimed at making it easier for utilities and refinery operators to change operations and expand production without installing new controls to capture the additional pollution.

Industry has argued that the old EPA regulations have hindered operation and prevented efficiency improvements.

The changes will ``encourage emissions reductions,'' EPA Administrator Christie Whitman argues in remarks prepared for the announcement. She said that the old rules ``have deterred companies from implementing projects that would increase energy efficiency and decrease air pollution.''

The new EPA regulation will allow industry to:

_Limit the amount of pollution it is allowed to release into the air based on figures not limited to specific facilities.

_Rely on a more lenient standard when figuring how pollution must be regulated.

In addition, the agency is proposing a new way of defining what constitutes ``routine maintenance, repair and replacement'' _ key language that helps determine when the regulations should kick in.

The EPA plans to grant power plants, factories and refineries an annual ``allowance'' for maintenance. Only when expenditures rise above that allowance would an owner or operator have to install new pollution control equipment. Replacement of existing equipment would be considered maintainence.

The administration said the new maintenance treatment ``will offer facilities greater flexibility to improve and modernize their operations in ways that will reduce energy use and air pollution.''

The changes were sought by the utility, coal and oil industries, and were the subject of months of review at the White House. The electric utility and coal industries were both major donors to Republicans for the 2002 and 2000 elections.

Electric companies and their employees contributed at least $11 million to the GOP in the 2001-02 election cycle, more than twice as much as they gave Democrats, according to figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign finance.

Coal companies and their employees made at least $1.9 million in political contributions in that period, with more than $8 of every $10 going to Republicans, the center found.

Bush's 2000 presidential campaign was also a major beneficiary of the industries' largess. Several energy executives raised at least $100,000 each for Bush's campaign, and the energy industry, including electric and mining companies, gave more than $2.8 million.

Many of the fund-raisers and donors were members of Bush's transition team, weighing in on energy and environmental policy as the president set up his administration.