WASHINGTON, 5 January 2003 — Nine US states are challenging the Bush administration’s decision to lower national industrial pollution restrictions. The lawsuit, filed this week by Northeast states from Maine to Maryland, says air pollution from coal-fired power plants and other industrial sites in the Midwest is downwind to their states.

The legal challenge was filed just as the Environmental Protection Agency issued final revisions to the “New Source Review” clean air enforcement rules that would “effectively preclude future government legal action in all but the most flagrant cases of pollution,” according to the Washington Post.

A consultant closely familiar with the lawsuits by the Northeast attorneys general against Midwestern power plants told Arab News the court case is being undermined by the actions of the administration.

“When the EPA started talking about changing the rules, it sent a clear signal to the utility companies being sued that better circumstances may be in the works, and there was no need to take the lawsuit seriously. In fact, if the administration had said nothing about rule changes, many of these lawsuits would have been settled already,” said the consultant, who requested anonymity.

Under the Bush administration’s new rules, critics say the refineries, manufacturers and some utilities will be able to upgrade or expand their plants, and increase their emissions, without having to add costly anti-pollution equipment to control smog, acid rain and soot.

“The reason the rules were changed is that several Midwest power companies in the US were trying to evade the rules. We will see if the rule evasion rules work or not,” said Gregg Easterbrook, senior editor at The New Republic, and economist at the Brookings Institution.

“The premise that the New Source Rules will increase pollution is totally speculative,” said Easterbrook, who criticized leading US newspapers, specifically the New York Times, for their “alarmist coverage” on this issue.

“It is possible that these rules could lead to new pollution, but my guess is that the rules will reduce the rate of pollution. The key thing to bear in mind is that all these power plants have been steadily reducing their pollution output.” Easterbrook said there was little concern that factories will now start increasing their pollution emissions.

“The sort of doomsday hand-wringing is coming from people who don’t understand the issues,” said Easterbrook.

Asked if the attorneys general of these states who say the administration’s rule making exceeds its legislative authority could also be accused of hand wringing, Easterbrook said, “Basically, yes. They either don’t understand the issues, or don’t want to.”

Easterbrook said is it a long lasting political problem. “The Northeast is downwind from the plants in the Midwest, and they can – by law — emit more pollution than the Northeast, and their pollution drift towards the Northeast. The Northeast also pays a higher cleanup price, because their megawatt prices are more expensive.”

But Easterbrook strongly denies any misdoing. “This is not an attempt to increase the pollution in the Midwest, this is total nonsense.” He cites Congress as having “avoided this problem for 20 years, because of the horse-trading that goes on there.”

“The attorneys general know this, but they hope to get some equity in legislation,” he said.

Easterbrook is not totally supportive of the Bush administration’s environmental guidelines. “I have lots of disagreements with the Bush administration’s environmental policy, mainly regarding greenhouse pollution — which will take a generation to solve — and I wish the Bush administration would not evade it. But in the category of pollution regulated by the Clean Air Act, all six have been in lineal decline since they have been put into effect.

“Health experts do not doubt that there must be premature deaths from power plant emissions, but one should worry more about diesel fuel than power plant fuel,” said Easterbrook.

“And the Bush administration has taken some strong actions to reduce actions for diesel fuel, which they get no credit for in the media, because it’s a success story,” he concluded.