EPA going it alone on utility emission rules: Democrats

WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters)

Democrats assailed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday for charging ahead with a plan to relax air pollution standards for aging U.S. power plants without seeking advice from health and environment experts.

At issue is the EPA's so-called "new source review" regulations which dictate how far a U.S. utility can go to enlarge or upgrade an old coal-fired plant before it must install costly technology to control smog, acid rain and soot.

The issue has become a political lightning rod for the administration's willingness to enforce environmental laws. Utilities complain that the current rule requires new investments of billions of dollars while green groups say it is the nation's best shield against more air pollution.

"I'm concerned that EPA appears to have a closed mind on this issue," California Rep. Henry Waxman, a Democrat, told Reuters. "They don't seem interested in consensus ... or the public health consequences of weakening air pollution requirements."

Waxman said he was concerned because Capitol Hill briefings on new source review by a senior EPA official last Friday indicated the agency was preparing to relax the regulation.

Some agency watchers say the changes could be unveiled this summer, while other lobbyists say it will not come until after the November elections.

The EPA has contended that its new source review program remains mandatory, and refuted Waxman's criticism.

"To say that there hasn't been public input into the process is simply not true," EPA spokesman Joe Martyak said, citing numerous meetings and 130,000 public comments collected by the agency.

NO COALITION BUILDING

During the Clinton administration, the EPA prepared new environmental regulations only after months of meetings with lawmakers, environmental groups and industry officials to try to avoid costly future lawsuits.

The EPA seems to have abandoned that approach for new source review, lawmakers say.

"They have yet to open up the process," said a spokesman for Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat and presidential hopeful. "We think it is definitely time for the process to be opened."

Last month, Lieberman hammered the Bush administration for its poor environmental enforcement record and pressed EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman to turn over records on EPA's new source review process. The documents have yet to be submitted, the Lieberman spokesman said.

State environmental officials have asked the EPA to include them in any changes. Last week, EPA Assistant Administrator Jeff Holmstead told lawmakers that the agency will go it alone in its planning, according to sources at the meeting.

"(Holmstead) said he took the job because he wanted to make decisions. Apparently he views involving the states as a waste of time," said a Congressional source who was at the meeting.

The Bush administration contends that its proposal for a cap-and-trade approach to utility emissions makes new source review regulations much less important, said another legislative aide who attended Holmstead's briefing.

"They're trying to downplay what really is a very important program from a public health and environmental perspective," one source said.

"NSR is just one component of the whole Clean Air Act," EPA's Martyak said. The cap-and-trade program will be more effective than NSR because "it's mandatory, it's sooner ... it has more certainty to it," Martyak said.

Independent Senator Jim Jeffords acknowledged that NSR "may need a little sharpening," but said the administration "seems to be saying it's rusty so let's just throw it out and hope we don't need that tool again."

LAWSUITS HANG IN BALANCE

Also at stake are Clinton-era Clean Air Act lawsuits against nine Midwestern and Southern utilities, most of which have screeched to a halt as companies sense changing political winds.

In January, the Justice Department affirmed the EPA's right to proceed with the cases. Two firms -- Cinergy Corp and Virginia Electric Power Co. -- were seen likely to settle.

But an EPA letter to both utilities sent on April 11 indicated that settlement talks have not advanced. The same day, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut threatened to resume litigation unless a settlement is finalized.

On Wednesday, former EPA official Eric Schaeffer will release a study showing that pollutants from eight utilities involved in the lawsuits are linked to 6,000 deaths a year. Schaeffer resigned as director of EPA's Office of Regulatory Enforcement in March to protest the administration's actions.