New Push By Bush Admin. To Weaken Coal-Fired Power Plant Rules - Reuters

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - The Bush administration on
Thursday proposed changing environmental rules to give U.S.
coal-fired power plants more leeway to expand aging facilities
without installing expensive equipment to cut air
pollution.

Utility industry officials applauded the plan, but it drew
fire from environmental groups and some states, who said it
would make the air dirtier and give energy companies a benefit
they failed to get in congressional legislation last week.
The changes to the contentious "New Source Review" section
of the Clean Air Act proposed by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) would let utilities calculate emissions on an
hourly, rather than annual basis.

That would allow existing plants to emit more pollutants
without triggering federal emission-reduction requirements,
environmentalists said. The EPA said its proposal would allow U.S. industry to boost plant efficiency and reliability without the threat of impending lawsuits.

"This is not about getting rid of New Source Review," EPA
Administrator Stephen Johnson told reporters. "No one's air
gets any cleaner when you are sitting in a courtroom."

EDIT

Cute, Stephen. Nice quip. Thanks for nothing.

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=URI:urn:newsml:reuters.com:20051013:MTFH21353_2005-10-13_22-23-10_N13657972:1

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Katrina was caused by Whacko Liberals and Bill Clinton, not...

Global Warming. So please adhere to the Republican Party Propaganda line: global warming is just a liberal way of smearing all that is Good and Holy and Republican."

- George W. Bush and the Oil Republicans
(excerpted from the Culture of Corruption Manifesto)

[HereSince1628]

2. The Repubicans have hated The Clean Air Act since Nixon signed it

Every republican since Reagan has blamed environmental regulation for the collapse of profitable American manufacturing.

As Condoliar Rice repeatedly points out, every disaster is loaded with opportunites, and the republicans are doing their best to role the regulations back.