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THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW - October 7, 2010
As Elections Loom, EPA Takes Bipartisan Flak on Pollution
Rules
by: Renee Schoof
McClatchy Newspapers-Report
Washington - The Environmental Protection Agency has run
into bipartisan opposition from senators over its plans
to cut mercury and other toxic emissions from boilers at
large factories and from the heating plants for places
such as shopping malls and universities.
The dustup over a seemingly routine environmental rule
shows how political worries about the economy and pressure
from industries that object to the costs of pollution
controls are leading Congress to try to restrain the EPA.
The effort is separate from another bipartisan push in the
Senate, lead by Democrat Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia,
to prevent the EPA from taking action under the Clean Air
Act to reduce emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide
from large facilities. Now that a climate bill is deemed
dead in the Senate this year, opponents of air regulations
are turning their attention to new EPA efforts to use the
Clean Air Act.
The agency has been busy in that arena. Last Friday it
announced another proposed air pollution rule, one that
would impose limits on emissions of mercury, soot and
other harmful pollutants from sewage sludge incinerators.
Earlier, it proposed a rule to cut hazardous pollution
from commercial and industrial solid-waste incinerators.
In addition, the EPA is working on what could be one of
its biggest moves: the final form of rules that would
tighten the standards for ozone, or smog. A final decision
is expected at the end of the month.
Clean Air Watch, an advocacy group that keeps track of bad
pollution days, reported that 40 states and the District
of Columbia had days with unhealthy levels of smog under
the current standard, which was set during the Bush admini-
stration.
The American Petroleum Institute objected to the EPA's new
proposal for a tougher standard, claiming that it would
cost what the Manufacturers Alliance estimated would be
7.3 million jobs by 2020.
Industry groups have objected to pollution controls on the
grounds of costs throughout the 40-year life of the Clean
Air Act. Environmentalists say that their dire predictions
through the decades have failed to materialize.
Now, however, jobs are a key issue in the midterm elect-
ions. Republicans have a shot at taking control of both
houses of Congress. Opponents of air pollution controls
are warning about job losses.
"The reality is that with the climate bill in a deep
freeze, I think, frankly, the big polluter interests see
the Clean Air Act as the only thing left that's threaten-
ing them. So they are ramping up their political pressure,"
said Joe Meldelson, an attorney for the National Wildlife
Federation. "They're doing that on all the Clean Air Act
rules, both for greenhouse gases and the conventional
stuff, and sort of smell blood in the water."
The boiler rule is a main target, he said.
The rule is intended to cut air toxics that can harm the
developing brains of children and cause cancer and other
health and environmental damage. The agency estimated that
the controls it proposed on boilers and large heating
systems in April would prevent up to 4,800 deaths per
year.
Mercury in the air settles into the water, and builds up
in fish. People are exposed when they eat the contaminated
fish.
The rules also would limit other pollutants that can cause
cancer or other illnesses.
The rule on solid waste incinerators would limit soot in
addition to toxic pollutants. Soot triggers asthma and can
cause heart attacks and other serious problems for people
with heart and lung diseases.
In a Sept. 24 letter, 41 senators accused the EPA of
proposing regulations on the boilers that would lead "to
the loss of potentially thousands of high-paying jobs."
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was concerned that
the rule would harm her state's pulp and paper industry.
The senators' letter also said that the rule imposing
restrictions on commercial and industrial solid-waste
incinerators could "have a devastating impact on the
biomass industry," the renewable energy sector that
uses wood chips and other plant material for fuel.
"As the national unemployment rate hovers around 10
percent, and federal, state and municipal finances
continue to be in dire straits, our country should not
jeopardize thousands of manufacturing jobs," said the
letter from more than four-fifths of the Senate's 50
members, including several who usually support the EPA,
such as Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.
In the letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the
senators asked her agency to "consider flexible approach-
es" on boilers and incinerators.
Jackson wrote back, saying the agency would take their
concerns and those expressed by businesses into consider-
ation as it makes the final standards.
"The Clean Air Act does not place our need to increase
employment in conflict with our needs to protect public
health," Jackson wrote.
Other senators who signed the Sept. 24 letter to EPA
Administrator Lisa Jackson:
Mary Landrieu, D-La., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Lamar Alexander,
R-Tenn., Evan Bayh, D-Ind., George Voinovich, R-Ohio,
Patty Murray, D-Wash., Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, Blanche
Lincoln, D-Ark., Kit Bond, R-Mo., Bob Casey, D-Pa., Bob
Corker, R-Tenn., Richard Shelby, R-Ala., Mark Pryor,
D-Ark., Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Mark Begich, D-Alaska,
Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Jim
Risch, R-Idaho, Mark Warner, D-Va., Richard Burr, R-N.C.,
Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Daniel
Inouye, D-Hawaii, Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Jim Webb, D-Va.,
Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., Ben Nelson, D-Neb., James Inhofe,
R-Okla., Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.,
Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., Herb Kohl, D-Wis., John Cornyn,
R-Texas, David Vitter, R-La., Kay Bailey Hutchison,
R-Texas, George LeMieux, R-Fla., Scott Brown, R-Mass.,
Kay Hagan, D-N.C.
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