The Clean Air Act is one of the signature laws that empowers the Environmental Protection Agency. But during the Bush administration, the EPA seems to have done all it can to undermine its own power. Whether it’s pressure from Dick Cheney or self-loathing or something else, Stephen Johnson, the EPA  administrator, is trotting a new rule that makes it easier for power plants to pollute.

The Wall Street Journals’ Siobhan Hughes reports that the regulation would judge power plant emissions by an hourly rate of toxins in the air instead of a total annual input (will this lead to all-night, after-hours power plants?). Also, older power plants would not have to buy pollution control equipment, as long as they didn’t exceeding their traditional level of polluting.

Several Democratic lawmakers are upset. These include Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who helped make stronger the Clean Air Act in 1990 and is now seeing his reforms vanish into thin, polluted air.-MB

Comment RSS - You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.