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HEADLINE: For Senate Committee, a Big Change; New Environment Chairman Opposes Many Protections

BYLINE: Eric Pianin, Washington Post Staff Writer

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The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is about to undergo a dramatic transformation, as Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), long a nemesis of the environmental movement, takes control as chairman.

The committee, with jurisdiction over a broad range of environmental issues and government construction projects, traditionally has had a moderate or liberal chairman -- such as the late Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.) and outgoing chairman James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.) -- who maintained strong ties to conservation and environmental groups.

Inhofe, by contrast, is a conservative who has championed his state's oil and gas industry and opposed many environmental protection initiatives. The former U.S. representative and real estate developer had special disdain for the Environmental Protection Agency throughout the Clinton administration and once called it a "Gestapo bureaucracy." Environmentalists and some Democrats predict major upheaval on the committee as Inhofe attempts to impose his views over the Democratic minority and moderate Republicans. "This is the first time since the passage of major environmental laws 30 years ago that someone with a truly anti-environmental record will be chairman of that committee," said Julie Sibbing of the National Wildlife Federation.

As he prepares to take the reins of the committee, Inhofe, 68, is choosing his words carefully and appears to be trying to soften his image. Aides say he is eager to work in a bipartisan fashion on key issues and that he will support environmental protection measures -- provided they are based on "sound science" and survive rigorous cost-benefit analysis.

"He wants to work in a bipartisan way, and he's not looking for fights right off the bat," said Gary Hoitsma, Inhofe's press secretary. "Fundamentally, the senator rejects this notion that Republicans and conservatives are anti-environment. There are different approaches to how to clean the environment. He plans to work with Republicans and Democrats to do good things for the environment."

Inhofe has begun discussions with EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman on issues awaiting committee action, including President Bush's "Clear Skies" proposal for reducing power plant emissions.

Some committee Democrats who have tangled with Inhofe say they are willing to try to work with him. "I hold out my hand to the new chairman in the hopes that we can work together to safeguard the health of the American people and protect our God-given environment," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), a liberal advocate for environmental causes.

"He's had a tough point of view about the EPA," an EPA official said. "But once he becomes chairman he has a broader responsibility in terms of looking at what needs to be done . . . and making sure all the different views of the committee are heard."

There will be some early tests of Inhofe's leadership, although some of the toughest issues are likely to be put off for many months. Inhofe's chief goal in 2003 will be the reauthorization of the highway bill, known as the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, and legislation authorizing Army Corps of Engineers water projects and administrative practices.

The six-year highway bill, due to expire Sept. 30, authorized $ 217 billion in spending. The new legislation is likely to cost considerably more. A particularly sensitive issue for Oklahoma and a number of other states is their "donor status," or the fact that they generate more in federal fuel tax revenue than they get back in highway construction funds.

"Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma could do better on our roads," Inhofe told an Oklahoma newspaper this month. "We are going to be in the position to do that."

The highway bill has important environmental implications as well: The administration and GOP lawmakers are looking for ways to speed up highway, bridge and airport projects by streamlining or short-circuiting laws requiring time-consuming environmental impact assessments. Environmentalists opposed that move, saying it would undermine environmental protections. Inhofe will have a big say in how that debate plays out.

Some of Inhofe's other legislative priorities include:



* Passage of legislation to strengthen security in the chemical and nuclear power industries. Measures approved by the committee this year never made it to the Senate floor.



* Approval of a bill to fund the cleanup and removal of dangerous underground chemical and oil storage tanks.



* Hearings into competing proposals for reducing health-threatening power plant emissions.

Disputes over clean air policy dominated the committee's deliberations during the past year, and pitted Jeffords and his Democratic allies against the administration and Republicans. Such hot-button issues as clean air and global warming likely will be put off for at least a year.

Inhofe favors Bush's "Clear Skies" initiative that would sharply reduce utility plant emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury in coming years, but that would do nothing to cut carbon dioxide emissions -- which many scientists say is the chief cause of global warming.

Jeffords insisted on more ambitious legislation, including mandatory limits on carbon dioxide, but his bill failed to get beyond committee action. Inhofe and Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) -- an ally of the utility industry who is likely to become chairman of the clean air subcommittee -- would block an attempt to revive a proposal that would hurt utilities and the coal industry by imposing tough restrictions on carbon emissions.

Inhofe appears to want to avoid a politically bruising showdown with Jeffords and Democrats over clean air policy next year, and probably will put off a markup until 2004. Even then, Republicans may be reluctant to become embroiled in a major fight over the Clean Air Act, in the midst of the presidential campaign.

With many moderate Republicans sympathetic to green causes, including committee members Lincoln D. Chafee (R.I.) and Arlen Specter (Pa.), few expect a repeat of the assault on key environmental laws waged by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and House Republicans in 1995, which triggered a voter backlash. Instead, Democrats and environmentalists say, the changes are likely to be achieved in more subtle ways, through riders to spending bills and tweaking of budgets for enforcing environmental regulations.

As chairman of a subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Clean Air Act, Inhofe tried to thwart implementation of new air standards aimed at reducing ozone and controlling particulate matter. He fought new regulations for the oil industry, including a measure to reduce the health-threatening sulfur content of gasoline.

He also supported a moratorium on new listings to the Endangered Species Act; voted against raising fees for grazing cattle on federal lands; supported the timber industry's interests in logging in national forests; supported a bill to establish an aboveground nuclear waste site in Nevada and opposed major Everglades restoration legislation. He consistently received some of the lowest scores in Congress from the League of Conservation Voters and some of the highest scores possible from business groups.



CORRECTION-DATE: December 31, 2002

CORRECTION:
A Dec. 30 article on Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) incorrectly attributed a quote that described the new Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chairman as having "a truly anti-environmental record." The statement was made by Joan Mulhern of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.

LOAD-DATE: December 30, 2002