Thanks to David Orr for sending this NY Times article.  A Knight Ridder
article about this issue was also in today's DM Register.

In the NY Times article pasted below:
"Officials pointed to new data, released today, showing that air quality in
the United States had gotten cleaner in recent decades even as economic
growth had surged. Total emissions had declined by 48 percent since 1970,
Bush administration officials said, adding that the new source review had
been incidental to that trend."

However, the Knight Ridder article went on to say:
"But missing from the president's speech and buried deep within the EPA
report was the key fact on smog: The number of days when smog levels
violated federal health standards has increased since the president took
office..........EPA's internal records.........show that after decreasing
through the 1990s, the number of smog days increased in 2001 and jumped
dramatically in 2002."

Jane Clark

New York Times

Bush Defends New Environmental Rules
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/16/politics/16BUSH.html?th

September 16, 2003

Bush Defends New Environmental Rules

By RACHEL L. SWARNS

MONROE, Mich., Sept. 15 - President Bush toured one of the nation's largest
power plants today and hailed the sprawling complex here as a symbol of how
the relaxation of clean air rules would boost the economy and protect the
environment. After donning a white hard hat and viewing the roaring turbine
generators at the Detroit Edison plant here, Mr. Bush told cheering workers
that cumbersome and complicated government regulations had prevented the
plant from upgrading to cleaner and more efficient generators for nearly
five years.

Last month, in one of the most far-reaching environmental decisions of his
tenure, Mr. Bush eliminated those rules, allowing thousands of power plants,
refineries and factories to make extensive upgrades that increase pollutants
without having to install new antipollution devices. The president said
other regulations, as well as the passage of his bill known as the Clear
Skies initiative, would keep the air clean.

"Regulations intended to enhance air quality made it really difficult for
companies to do that which is necessary, to not only produce more energy,
but to do it in a cleaner way," Mr. Bush said today. "It makes sense to
change these regulations. It makes sense for the workplace environment. It
makes sense for the protection of the air."

But the trip to the Detroit plant, intended as a broad defense of the Bush
administration's clean air policy, quickly reignited the fierce debate
between government officials and environmental groups.

While Mr. Bush was greeting workers, environmentalists said the relaxation
of clean air rules known as the new source review would allow this plant to
increase emissions by more than 30,000 tons a year, a 56 percent increase
over current levels.

The groups also noted that the government's own analysis of the effect of
the Clear Skies bill found that the Monroe plant would not decrease its
emissions of soot-forming sulfur dioxide.

In 2001, the plant emitted 102,700 tons of sulfur dioxide, according to the
Environmental Protection Agency analysis, which was released in July. The
plant, which provides electricity to 2.1 million people, is expected to
continue to emit 102,700 tons of soot if the proposal becomes law.

"The very power plant the president has chosen to spotlight today
demonstrates that his policies won't work," said Conrad Schneider, the
advocacy director of the Clean Air Task Force, an environmental group. "We
want to see real power plant cleanup legislation that will protect the
health of every American."

Senator James M. Jeffords, the Vermont independent and ranking minority
member on the Environment and Public Works Committee, echoed those concerns.
He described Mr. Bush's policies as "the exact opposite of what the nation
needs."

"The administration's deregulatory agenda, specifically the gutting of the
new source review program, will lead to more pollution and therefore more
disease and premature deaths," Mr. Jeffords said. Government officials
dismissed the concerns raised by environmental groups.

"They're wrong," said James L. Connaughton, chairman of the Council on
Environmental Quality, a White House advisory group.

Officials pointed to new data, released today, showing that air quality in
the United States had gotten cleaner in recent decades even as economic
growth had surged. Total emissions had declined by 48 percent since 1970,
Bush administration officials said, adding that the new source review had
been incidental to that trend.

Eliminating the rules will allow companies to modernize more easily, leading
to greater efficiency, officials said, while other regulations will continue
to promote clean skies.

"The air must, as a matter of law and as a matter of the will of this
administration, must get better," Mr. Connaughton said. "What we are talking
about today are the sensible policies, the smart ways to achieve those
results while promoting economic growth."

Government officials and company executives said Detroit Edison planned to
reduce its emissions despite the conclusions of the Environmental Protection
Agency analysis.

Mr. Bush also called today for mandatory reliability standards for the
country's electrical grid and for passage of the Clear Skies initiative,
which seeks to cut emissions from all power plants by 70 percent by 2018,
but would not impose the standard uniformly, allowing operators to trade
"pollution credits" - the right to pollute - among themselves.

"I expect Congress to act," Mr. Bush said of the bill. "Instead of playing
politics with environmental legislation, we need to come together and do
what's right for American workers and American families."

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

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