Reply #66: relevant to this discussion and to keep in mind

[buddhamama]

while digging through the Energy Bill mess the last of the EPA rule changes are to be finalized tomorrow...

Congressional Report Says EPA Lacks Data to Ease Pollution Rules

Washington --- The Environmental Protection Agency relied on anecdotes provided by industry to support its conclusion that changes in a key pollution rule would lead to cleaner air, investigators from the General Accounting Office said Monday.

The rule change, approved late last year, would allow owners of industrial boilers new flexibility to make upgrades and expansions without triggering a Clean Air Act provision known as "new source review."

Prior to the change, the provision caused old plants to lose their exemption to certain federal air pollution rules if the plants were expanded or fundamentally improved.

Former EPA Administrator Christine Whitman said in announcing the rule change last year that different requirements on industry would lead to greater plant efficiency and would "encourage" owners of industrial boilers to reduce pollution.

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"EPA relied primarily on anecdotal information provided by the industries most affected by new source review in concluding that the program discouraged some energy efficiency projects, including some that would have reduced air emissions," the GAO said.

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Another in a series of air pollution rule changes is to become final this week, according to the EPA. It applies to electric power plants and allows them much greater flexibility in counting upgrades and other changes as "routine maintenance" and therefore not covered by new source review.

In a series of lawsuits filed during the Clinton administration, the EPA and the Justice Department accused five Southern and Midwestern utilities of expanding scores of old coal-burning power plants without complying with the Clean Air Act.

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http://www.nrdc.org/news/newsDetails.asp?nID=1074