Clean Air News

PORTLAND—The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today cast the first ever vote on the Bush administration’s “Clear Skies” bill (S.131), rejecting the measure on a 9-9 tie.

“This is a stunning victory for public health,” said OSPIRG Field Director Laura Etherton. “It’s great news for the American people, and bad news for the polluters who were looking forward to this sweetheart deal. We commend the Senate committee for defeating this disastrous bill.”

Today’s vote comes after months of delay as Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-OK) attempted to increase support for the bill. In the end, the bill was defeated due to criticism from committee members over provisions that would have repealed and weakened the Clean Air Act. Senators Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) and James Jeffords (I-VT) joined all seven Democrats in voting against the bill. Additional opposition in the Republican ranks grew as well, as Senator John Warner (R-VA) submitted an amendment to strip out measures that weaken clean air protections for national parks.

The bill would delay until well after 2018 reductions in power plant sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions called for in the Clean Air Act by the end of this decade. The bill would also repeal the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review program, which requires the oldest and dirtiest plants to eventually meet modern pollution standards.

Additionally, the bill would force residents of heavily-polluted areas to wait longer for clean air than under current law, repeal protections that require every power plant to reduce mercury to the maximum extent (about 90 percent) by 2008, and allow oil refineries, chemical plants, and many other industries to “opt in” to the bill and opt out of major portions of the Clean Air Act, including existing EPA rules that require steep reductions in their emissions of dozens of pollutants that cause cancer, birth defects, and other serious health problems.

“Power plants and other industrial polluters contribute to the public health and environmental problems we have in Oregon,” said Etherton. “These pollutants contribute to global warming, asthma attacks, heart and lung disease, learning disabilities, and even death. The last thing we needed is a sweetheart deal allowing more of this pollution.”

Oregon State Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG) is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization with 28,000 members statewide.