EPA plans clean air rule to protect park vistas
© 2001 Reuters
June 25, 2001
Story by Patrick Connole
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Friday issued a proposed federal rule to tighten clean air standards for old coal-fired power plants that are blamed for spoiling vistas at dozens of national parks and wilderness areas, like the smog-plagued Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.
In a move anticipated by clean air activists, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman signed the national park visibility protection proposal, widely known as the "BART" rule, which is nearly the same plan as one first put forward by the administration of President Bill Clinton.
The announcement comes at a time national polling data shows most Americans believe President George W. Bush is weak on the environment, favoring energy development and industry needs over advances in clean air, water and land programs.
The EPA said the proposed rule provides guidelines for states and tribal air quality agencies to determine air pollution controls for a number of older, large power plants and other industrial facilities.
BART, which stands for Best Available Retrofit Technology, had been delayed until the EPA completed an energy impact analysis. A White House executive order issued on May 18 directed all federal agencies to prepare an energy impact statement on any major regulatory action.
Vistas at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited park in the country, extend more than 50 miles (80 km) on good days, but only around 15 miles (25 km) on days when smog accumulates.
Other parks affected by pollution from nearby plants are mainly along the East Coast, from Maine's Acadia National Park to Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, experts said.
MIXED REACTION
The proposed rule, which experts said could become final in six months after public hearings and comment periods, aims to clear the skies in national parks and wilderness areas.
Frank O'Donnell, executive director of the Clean Air Trust environmental group, said he would wait until the rule becomes final before accepting it as a mirror of what the Clinton administration had planned.
"It's still a proposal, and it could ... change before the rule becomes final," O'Donnell said. "It's something that we will reserve judgment on until we see the final product."
But the National Association of Manufacturers said it was the wrong time for "expensive pollution controls and an increased regulatory burden," as the group fears a squeeze on energy supplies.
"At a time when energy supply is on the minds of many American consumers and businesses, this regulation may unnecessarily drag some companies into an expensive emissions-control program that prevents utilities from fulfilling all of our energy needs," the group said.
The EPA said the plan specifically amends the agency's 1999 regional haze rule to guide states and tribal air quality agencies in deciding which facilities must install air pollution controls and the types of controls to be installed.
The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments required EPA to establish a rule to improve visibility in 156 national parks and wilderness areas.
The amendments also called on states to require these older plants to install the best air pollution controls available.
The rules cover 26 sources of pollution, including power plants, incinerators and paper pulp mills. The regulations would cover power plants built between 1962 to 1977 that release more than 250 tons of pollutants like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into the air on a yearly basis.