Big danger for clean air
Fair Use Statement
Source: Bergen Record
Big danger for clean air
Monday, June 5, 2000
GIVEN the U.S. Supreme Court's direction in recent rulings, it is not
encouraging that the justices have decided to review the federal Clean Air
Act. In a string of recent decisions, a narrow 5-4 majority has sought to limit
federal powers in favor of states' rights.
It is possible that this same narrow majority could limit the federal
government's efforts to reduce air pollution, thereby setting back decades of
progress on a major public health issue.
In hearing arguments next fall, the Supreme Court will consider two aspects of
enforcing the Clean Air Act: Did the federal Environmental Protection Agency
overstep its authority in 1997 by setting tougher standards that define when
smog and soot reach unhealthful levels? And in setting clean air regulations,
should the EPA take into account industry's cost of compliance and not just
the effect on people's health?
New Jersey has a particular interest in supporting tougher standards on smog
and soot particles, since it contends that prevailing winds carry pollution from
power plants in the Midwest to the Northeast and contribute to dirty,
unhealthy air in this region.
New Jersey environmental and health officials believe the EPA acted properly
in cracking down on the Midwestern sources of pollution that endanger the
health of residents in other states.
The second area of the court's review, cost-benefit analysis, weighs
public-health concerns against the economic concerns of polluters. The U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, American Trucking Associations, and the National
Association of Manufacturers are among the industry groups challenging the
EPA and saying cost should be a factor in setting clean-air standards. They
say the equipment needed by industry to reduce smog and airborne particles is
too expensive and the standards too rigorous.
But for decades, federal environmental protections have been based on the
cost in illness and death, not the cost to polluters. Polluted air threatens
millions of Americans: children, the elderly, and people with respiratory and
heart ailments. Clean air saves lives.
The EPA permits state officials to consider the cost to industry in devising
realistic plans for meeting federal pollution-reduction targets. But changing
federal clean-air priorities would be dangerous, since industries would almost
always contend that the cost of pollution prevention or cleanup was too great.
Remember how the auto industry howled when the first antipollution devices
were ordered for motor vehicle exhausts?
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