Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) last Monday took dead aim at press reports that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is preparing to roll out plans that will call for a shift away from using the stick of lawsuits to enforce clean air regulations in favor of a carrot-like approach that will urge electric utilities to voluntarily reduce toxic emissions.

“The Bush Administration is risking the public’s health and the environment by undermining the Clean Air Act,” Markey said in response to a report in recent editions of the Washington Post related to the EPA’s soon-to-be-released plans.

According to the Post story, the EPA over the next several weeks is planning to unveil new regulations that would urge power companies to step up to the plate and voluntarily agree to reduce their plant emissions. Such a move would mark a shift away from government enforcement actions initiated during the Clinton Administration under the New Source Review (NSR) program.

The Clean Air Act mandates that power plants install modern air pollution controls when the plants are modified or upgraded under NSR. Some utilities have violated the law by undertaking major improvements and upgrades to their power plants without also installing the required pollution controls.

The Department of Justice is now pursuing a number of enforcement actions on behalf of EPA against companies alleged to have made NSR-triggering modifications to their facilities, but debate swirls around the interpretation of the word “modification.”

Markey noted that earlier this year 53 Members of the Northeast Congressional delegation joined him in sending a letter to EPA Administrator Christine Whitman urging her not to weaken NSR regulations. “But it appears that healthy bottom lines for the major energy companies are a greater concern to the Administration than the health of our constituents,” Markey said on Monday.

“Even the recent publication of medical studies linking air pollution to the development of asthma in children and lung cancer in adults has not stopped the NSR rollback juggernaut,” Markey said. “Instead we are asked to believe that the energy companies will respond to incentives and voluntarily reduce their toxic emissions,” he added.

However, the Post story also reports that the White House is pushing for legislation that would force emissions reductions at power plants in situations where the owners of facilities don’t go along with the voluntary approach.

Eric Schaeffer, formerly director of the EPA’s office of regulatory affairs, cited his displeasure with the Bush Administration’s approach to pollution restrictions on coal-fired power plants in a recent letter to Whitman announcing his resignation.

Among other things, Schaeffer said that the administration’s draft NSR rule changes would “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory” by undermining lawsuits that were filed in 1999 and 2000 against power companies.

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