Copyright 2000 The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta
Journal and Constitution
October 3, 2000, Tuesday, Final Edition
SECTION: Editorial; Pg. 8A
LENGTH: 592 words
HEADLINE:
Justify or revise air regulations
BYLINE: Staff
SOURCE: JOURNAL
BODY:
METRO ATLANTA'S smog season wound down last
week, but the battle over clean air is just heating up. Americans are hoping the
results will mean less expense and more sense governing this important
quality-of-life issue.
During the smog season that ended Saturday, there
were 11 days in which metro Atlanta exceeded the one-hour standard of 0.12 parts
per million of ozone. That's the fewest since 1997. After a five-month guilt
trip for motorists, maligned for causing smog, the state Environmental
Protection Division gave the credit for the good readings to the weather. It
seems unlikely that some environmental interest groups will grant that the
weather can also cause bad readings or that, overall, the air in the region and
the nation is cleaner than it was 20 years ago. .
The EPD also recorded
45 days in which the metro area violated the tougher eight-hour ozone standard
of 0.08 parts per million (compared with 69 last year). But that's an
unenforceable standard: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments next
month on whether the federal Environmental Protection Agency's stringent air
regulations are an unconstitutional delegation of legislative
authority by Congress.
The court agreed to hear from industry groups
challenging the new standards. It's not that these groups resist clean air. It's
that they seek cost- effective measures for achieving it, and EPA administrator
Carol Browner simply won't go there. The EPA is not required to consider the
cost of regulations it promulgates.
Not only have
analysts reported that the cost of the regulations outstrips
the health benefits, but the science behind the revised standard has long been
questioned. Meanwhile, the scientific community is denouncing the scientific
credentials of the EPA. Although some of its scientific practices have improved,
there's a "continuing basis" for concerns about the quality of research behind
the agency's regulatory decisions, the National Research Council reported
recently.
Congress is also considering how to fix the Clean Air Act. To
that end, Georgia's air protection chief was among state officials testifying
before a congressional committee in Washington last week on the problems of
local and state governments in implementing EPA regulations.
Ron Methier, who heads the EPD's Air Protection Branch, told the panel,
" Specific requirements prescribed by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments are, in
some cases, no longer the most effective or efficient ways to achieve clean
air."
That technology has overtaken the regulations
makes it a pocketbook issue in Georgia, where environmental groups have sued
over the EPA's extension of attainment deadlines. If the court agrees with the
environmental groups, metro Atlanta could be categorized in "severe"
non-attainment instead of " serious" non-attainment. That requires reformulated
gasoline, less effective in metro Atlanta than the cheaper
low-sulfur gasoline being phased in.
The federal
government must ensure local flexibility on environmental issues and insist the
science and the consumer cost justify the measures. A one-size solution dictated
from Washington and funded by the states' taxpayers is an expensive folly.
Americans must hope the Supreme Court halts the EPA's propensity to get its
zealotry ahead of its science.
To read the National Research Council
report on the EPA, go to books.nap. edu/books/0309071275/html/1.html
For
transcripts of state officials' testimony on the Clean Air Act, go to
www.senate.gov/ epw/stm1_106.htm#09-28-00
LOAD-DATE:
October 3, 2000 
