House votes to delay enforcement of new air quality standards
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
June 22, 2000
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House voted to block enforcement of strict new air quality standards, erasing for now a long list of cities and counties that stood to lose funds because they didn't measure up.
The measure was approved 226-199 Wednesday as an amendment to a bill appropriating money for housing, veterans and several other programs. The Senate has not voted on the bill, and there is no assurance President Clinton will sign the final version.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments on whether the Environmental Protection Agency must consider the costs of compliance -- not just health effects -- when it imposes new environmental standards. A lower court shot down the 1997 standards last year, contending they were arbitrary numbers based on questionable science.
Opponents of the measure cited environmental concerns, arguing nobody would be penalized until after the high court rules. But Rep. W.J. Tauzin, R-La., who voted for the amendment, said the mere cost of preparing for the tests could approach $10 billion nationwide.
"Have we walked through the looking glass with Alice?" asked Tauzin. "Have we now entered Wonderland?"
But Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., said erasing the noncomplaince list would send a bad message "by enabling communities to contend they don't have an air quality problem when the data indicate they do."
"The idea here is dirty air doesn't exist if it isn't officially recognized," Boehlert said.
The amendment was also met with steep resistance from environmental groups.
"When people are exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution, they ought to know about that," said Ed Hopkins, spokesman for the Sierra Club. "Essentially what this amendment does is keep them in the dark."
Rep. Mac Collins, R-Ga., one of the sponsors of the amendment, said the Georgia city of Columbus has already spent $66,000 in anticipation of a new study, even though he contends 98 percent of the pollutants come from elsewhere.
In striking down the standards, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the EPA had interpreted the 1990 Clean Air Act "so loosely" that it unlawfully usurped Congress' legislative power.
The revised air standards limited the allowable level of ozone, an essential part of smog, to 0.08 parts per million, instead of the 0.12 parts per million under the old requirement. And states for the first time were required to regulate microscopic particulates, or soot, from power plants, cars and other sources down to 2.5 microns, or 28 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
If the Senate follows suit and votes to delay enforcement of the new levels, the 1990 standards would still be enforced.