Budget Bill Amendment Seeks to Halt Air Pollution Rollbacks

Posted: 16-Jan-2003; Updated: 27-Jun-2003

In a challenge to the Bush administration's moves to gut a critical Clean Air Act program, North Carolina Senator John Edwards is expected this week to offer an amendment to the federal appropriations bill. The amendment would block funds for weakening the long-standing New Source Review (NSR). 

The NSR program, which requires power plants, refineries and other industries to install state-of-the-art pollution controls when they make changes at their facilities that increase the amount of air pollution they emit, has protected Americans from the harmful effects of dirty air for a quarter century. The White House recently announced it would relax NSR regulations, which health advocates note will allow greater amounts of contaminants into the air from polluting industries.

The Edwards amendment would postpone the implementation of the new relaxed rules until the National Academy of Sciences completes a thorough review of the expected health impacts and emissions increases from any easing of the NSR regulations. 

Said Environmental Defense attorney Vickie Patton,  "Even though the health impacts of air pollution have been well documented in scientific studies - and there is widespread opposition to rolling back protections among the public, doctors and many members of Congress - the Bush Administration still took a giant step backward on air pollution when it essentially gave the green light to thousands of factories, power plants and other industrial facilities across the U.S. to pollute more! This amendment offers a chance to protect our nation's health and air."

In another recent move recently to block the relaxation of Clean Air rules, nine northeastern states from Maine to Maryland filed suit to overturn the decision to loosen national industrial pollution restrictions, claiming that the new rules will allow Midwestern states' dirty air to drift over to Northeastern states.

When the suit was filed in December, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said: "The Bush Administration has taken an action that will bring more acid rain, more smog, more asthma, and more respiratory disease to millions of Americans. This action by the Bush Administration is a betrayal of the right of Americans to breathe clean, healthy air." 

Take Action on this critical Clean Air issue up for a vote now! Urge your senators to protect our nation's health and Clean Air Laws.

Find out more

*  on air quality and the weakening of the New Source Review program.
*  on how states are increasingly taking the lead on clean air and climate issues in the face of federal inaction.
*  on our call to Texas' Attorney General to join other states in demanding cleaner air for citizens.
*  9 Northeastern States Challenge Pollution Rule, New York Times article (1/03/03)
*  on government actions affecting your air at Washington Watch