I can't See What Bush is Doing

From yesterday's Mercury News:

Bush eases Clean Air Act for industries
By Seth Borenstein and Paul Rogers, Knight Ridder, Mercury News

WASHINGTON - In one of the broadest changes to air-pollution regulations since the Clean Air Act was first approved in 1970, the Bush administration Wednesday eased smog rules affecting more than 500 older power plants and some 20,000 aging factories and oil refineries.

Until now, under the rules known as ``new source review,'' industrial plants could not make major changes unless they also installed modern air-pollution controls such as new scrubbers in their smokestacks. But Wednesday's rules -- which set up a showdown with California and many New England states -- would allow operators of industrial facilities to make significant equipment upgrades without having to install costly new pollution-control equipment. The reforms have been sought by the oil and energy industries, along with manufacturing companies, who argued that the Clean Air Act is too inflexible and acts as a disincentive for industries to modernize their plants.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and the California Air Resources Board said Wednesday that they planned to file a lawsuit to try to block the new regulations. California's clean-air laws generally are the strictest in the nation. The clash underscores a growing trend in which the White House has altered environmental rules, and California, the nation's largest state, has dug in its heels.

This is bad news for those of us who breathe. As the American Lung Association points out:

The American Lung Association strongly opposes the rule issued today by the Environmental Protection Agency that will roll back key provisions of the Clean Air Act, called New Source Review. The Environmental Protection Agency’s decision is the latest in a series of steps that undermine large parts of the most effective environmental law in the United States.

The American Lung Association has already joined with other organizations concerned about air quality in this country in taking legal action to challenge previous EPA decisions that roll back provisions of the Clean Air Act. We will take legal action to challenge this decision also.

Under the existing provisions of the Clean Air Act, industry must clean up its pollution if changes are made to any facility that increases emissions. By establishing a new loophole that says a company doesn’t have to clean up as long as it doesn’t spend too much—regardless of how much additional pollution it spews—EPA is granting a license to pollute. This is unacceptable.

EPA is throwing in the towel to industry just as its own enforcement of the existing rules has proven successful in the courts, as evidenced by the decision this month to require Ohio Edison to clean up its plants for violating the same rules EPA would now relax. EPA should not retreat in the face of such victory. Instead, the Administration has based its rollbacks on what the General Accounting Office itself reported days ago were mere “anecdotes” from the polluters complaining that the effect of the existing law was too harsh. EPA policy should be based on protecting public health, not bolstering industry profits.

Reams of scientific studies have shown conclusively that air pollution, such as the pollution these industries produce, causes increased asthma attacks, emergency room visits, hospital admissions, and increased risk of death. A study conducted three years ago estimated that tens of thousands of Americans are dying prematurely each year because of our failure to clean up these facilities. Emerging research is linking pollution to lung cancer, birth defects, strokes, and heart attacks. We have more than enough evidence to require industry to clean up the existing plants today.

What is lacking is the commitment of this Administration to clean air and the health of Americans.

Obviously Bush is raising the levels of pollution in order to make sure our smog-irritated eyes can't see how his administration continues to rape, pillage, plunder, assault, degrade, starve and kill all of us who are not members of the upper 1% income bracket.