"Clear Skies" Just So Much Smoke and Mirrors

Proposed Bill Has Little to Do with Clearing the Skies, But Would Clear the Way for Polluters

Posted: 27-Jan-2005; Updated: 24-Apr-2007

	Coal-burning power plants are the single largest producer of mercury emissions. (Photo: Phillip J. Redman, U.S. Geological Survey)

The facts keep mounting that air pollution can be hazardous to your health. More than half of all Americans live in or near unhealthy air, yet stronger air pollution protections can be put into place with the stroke of a pen. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) simply needs to sign off on a strong, protective Clean Air Interstate Rule (known as CAIR) to clean up smokestack emissions, and thousands of premature deaths and asthma attacks could be prevented every year. But a competing bill which would allow for more pollution is in its way. 

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), backed by the utility industry, is introducing the Clear Skies bill, which would weaken our current air pollution laws while ignoring the need to address carbon dioxide pollution, a leading cause of global warming. This would be an unnecessary and tragic step backwards in the effort for cleaner, healthier air.

Take Action: Send a message to President Bush and your senators calling on them to support immediate EPA action to finalize the strongest anti-pollution rule possible, and to reject the polluter-friendly "Clear Skies" bill.

"Clear Skies" Murky

For more than 30 years, the Clean Air Act has been the bedrock of the nation's clean air laws. Today, that legacy of success is in danger. Contrary to its name, Sen. Inhofe's "Clear Skies" bill would chip away at this foundation by weakening standards and delaying deadlines required for coal-fired power plants to reduce dangerous pollutants like mercury. (More about toxic mercury pollution.) 

Power plant smokestacks discharge two-thirds of the nation's sulfur dioxide and one-fifth of nitrogen oxides pollution, precursors to harmful sooty air (particulate pollution) and ozone smog. If passed, Clear Skies would postpone deadlines for improving air quality for the millions of people that live in or near areas not meeting federal air quality standards.

	Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committeee, is pushing a bill that would undermine the succcesses of the Clean Air Act.

And it's not just human health that is in jeopardy. Clear Skies takes aim at long-standing safeguards meant to protect and improve air quality in some of our most cherished wilderness areas and national parks. Much of the 78% decline in visibility in the southern Appalachian Mountains, for example, can be traced back to power plant pollution. In addition, power plant pollution causes acid rain and nitrogen deposition, which harms lakes, streams, forests and wildlife.

Lobbyists for the electric utility industry are pushing Clear Skies, which will let polluters keep polluting longer. Reporter Darren Samuelsohn, who writes for the daily environmental policy and politics publication Greenwire, termed Clear Skies legislation "a proposal to amend the Clean Air Act for the electric-utility industry" and "the largest rewrite to the Clean Air Act since 1990."

In addition to weakening pollution standards, Clear Skies will not address carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gases contributing to the earth's warming. Sen. Inhofe has argued that there is no need to tackle the problem of global warming, despite calls for action from the world's leading scientists, economists and policymakers, including members of his own party.

Want Cleaner Air? Handle With CAIR

While the administration and some in Congress push to enact the polluter-friendly Clear Skies bill, a smarter, faster way to clean air languishes just short of approval.

The Clean Air Interstate Rule (or CAIR) is an administrative rule awaiting the signature of the head of EPA to take effect. If adopted in its strongest form, it would provide a cost-effective way to cut power plant pollution, preventing up to 16,000 premature deaths and about one million asthma attacks in children every year. The rule specifically addresses upwind pollution; in some areas of the country, 30-40% of air pollution drifts over from out of state. (Check the State-By-State Benefits Map to see how people in 28 states will be better off with a strong Clean Air Interstate Rule.)

Still, opponents are making false claims about CAIR's effectiveness. According to a January 21st Bloomberg story, the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Jim Connaughton, along with other proponents of Clear Skies, charged that CAIR will provoke a litany of lawsuits that will hamper air cleanup efforts for years, and claimed that what's needed is new legislation that is not susceptible to lawsuits.

"That argument misses the mark," says Environmental Defense attorney Vickie Patton. "EPA has an administrative program that it could finalize today to spur power plant cleanup. By contrast, any new legislation would have to be debated, adopted, carried out through the rulemaking processes and then still be subject to litigation. The swiftest way to achieve healthier air is for EPA to carry out programs and rules under the existing Clean Air Act."

In reality, Clear Skies would cripple longstanding regulations that require older coal-fired power plants to install modern pollution control equipment when they expand or upgrade operations, also known as New Source Review (see "The Empire State Gets Results," below). This would exempt hundreds of smokestacks that are a significant source of dangerous pollutants from cleaning up their act.

"This administration is in the position to make the right choice -- or the wrong choice -- to ensure cleaner, healthier air for ourselves and our children," says Michael Shore, Environmental Defense Senior Air Policy Analyst.  "We need to remind them to implement the Clean Air Act, not undermine it." 
 

The Empire State Gets Results If the Clean Air Act ain't broke, don't fix it: That's the message from the latest success of the act's New Source Review program aimed at cutting power plant pollution. For Clear Skies' proponents who want to dismantle the program, we have two words: It works. slash dangerous smokestack emissions, marking the largest cut in air pollution levels reached through a settlement in the history of the state. Together the plants will reduce their nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions by more than 18,000 tons a year - equal to removing 2.5 million cars from the road. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions will be cut by more than 123,000 tons a year -- the equivalent of taking every diesel truck and bus in the United States off the road! This month six coal-fired plants settled with the State of New York to "Clearly carrying out and enforcing the existing Clean Air Act can cut harmful pollution from power plant smokestacks," says Environmental Defense attorney Vickie Patton. "Clear Skies is a smokescreen for utility industry lobbyists to rewrite and weaken the nation's bedrock clean air laws."

	Take Action: Make your voice heard and urge President Bush and the Senate to reject the dirty "Clear Skies" bill and instead support and finalize the Clean Air Interstate Rule.
Find Out More
	See more about the mounting evidence of pollution's effects on infants and children.
	Visit our Clean Air for Life campaign web site (www.cleanairforlife.org) to learn about Pollution Solutions and the problem with power plants.
	Scorecard - Which polluters release the most soot/fine particles, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the United States?