Tag: president bush

State Agencies Concerned About Power Plant Upgrades

Recently, the Bush administration announced it will allow factories and power plants to make large upgrades without having to install anti-pollution technology. But that business incentive has state Environmental Protection Agencies worried about air quality. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jenny Lawton has this report:

Transcript

Recently, the Bush administration announced it will allow factories and power plants to make
large upgrades without having to install anti-pollution technology. But that business incentive
has state Environmental Protection Agencies worried about air quality. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Jenny Lawton has this report:


For the last 30 years, under the Clean Air Act, power plants and factories have been required to
install pollution control devices whenever they made major improvements to their infrastructure.


Under the new federal rule, a plant can make improvements worth up to 20-percent of its value
without installing smoke-stack scrubbers. The U.S. EPA says the Bush administration’s rule
means plants will be able to modernize.


But Illinois state EPA director Renee Cipriano says modernizing a plant doesn’t necessarily mean
it will be cleaner.


“The cost of a modification does not necessarily equal the impact to the environment. The two do
not equal each other.”


Cipriano says the change jeopardizes the standards set by the Clean Air Act. The Illinois EPA
and the state’s attorney general will file a petition to block the change. Twelve other states have
filed similar petitions.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jenny Lawton.

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New Air Pollution Rule Under Fire

Environmentalists are protesting a new air pollution rule from the Bush Administration. They say it will make it easier for the industry to continue to pollute or even pollute more. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Environmentalists are protesting a new air pollution rule from The Bush administration. They
say it will make it easier for the industry to continue to pollute or even pollute more. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


Despite the 1970 Clean Air Act, some factory owners have kept polluting at the same rate for
more than 30 years. That’s because plants only were required to add pollution controls when
making significant updates. Environmentalists say a new rule put in place by the Bush
administration makes that loophole even bigger.


Eric Schaeffer is a former EPA official who quit, protesting the weakening of environmental
rules.


“What this rule says is if you’re sitting on an old plant that’s pretty dirty, that’s uncontrolled, that
isn’t meeting the Clean Air Act standards, you can go in and piece by piece, you can continue to
rebuild these plants and keep them alive and keep them going without putting on pollution
controls.”


The new rule comes in the wake of a General Accounting Office report that found the Bush
White House made the decision based almost entirely upon anecdotes from factory owners rather
than from hard data collected by the EPA.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

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Bush Chooses New Epa Administrator

President Bush has chosen Utah Governor Mike Leavitt as the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Some environmentalists say this nomination indicates that the Bush administration is no longer concerned about placating conservationists. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports:

Transcript

President Bush has chosen Utah Governor Mike Leavitt as the new head of the
Environmental
Protection Agency. Some environmentalists say this nomination indicates that the Bush
administration is no longer concerned about placating conservationists. The Great
Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports:


If Leavitt is confirmed by the Senate, he will replace Christie Todd Whitman, who
resigned in
May.


Business leaders and Republicans describe Leavitt as a moderate and a consensus
builder.
Environmental groups, though, say Utah’s governor has a history of allowing
corporations to
pollute the state’s forests and waterways.


Scott Groene is the staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.


“He’s a smart man and he’ll be very careful not to blunder by telling the public
what he’s doing if
he’s actually rolling back environmental protections. That’s certainly what we’ve
seen here in
Utah, is that he’ll take some fairly extreme actions but then he’ll manage to claim
the middle
ground with his rhetoric.”


Leavitt says he wants to give states a larger role in environmental regulation. His
confirmation
hearings will be scheduled when the Senate returns to Washington in September.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Celeste Headlee.

Ijc Chairman to Win Confirmation?

President Bush’s nomination to lead a Great Lakes governing council has been held up in the U.S. Senate for 15 months. But there are signals that interim International Joint Commission Chairman Dennis Schornack might soon win confirmation. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rick Pluta has more:

Transcript

President Bush’s nomination to lead a Great Lakes governing council has been held up in the U.S.
Senate for 15 months. But there are signals that interim International Joint Commission Chairman
Dennis Schornack might soon win confirmation. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rick Pluta
has more:


Dennis Schornack is President Bush’s nominee to be the U.S. chair of the International Joint
Commission. The IJC resolves disputes over the use of the Great Lakes.


Senator Debbie Stabenow is using a prerogative of her office to hold up his confirmation. The
two are long-time political adversaries. And Stabenow says she has questions over Schornack’s
positions on Great Lakes drilling, and water diversion. But she’s willing to give his record a
second look.


Schornack says he expects she’ll find they agree on a lot – especially the position that Congress
should not have the final word on Great Lakes decisions.


“States and provinces should be in charge. They’re the people with the resources, they’re the
people with the real stake in the Great Lakes.”


Stabenow says she’ll make a decision by September. Schornack’s appointment expires at the end
of the year if the Senate does not act on it.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Rick Pluta.

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Military to Avoid Environmental Laws?

The U.S. military is mapping out a strategy to avoid compliance with environmental laws. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

The U.S. military is mapping out a strategy to avoid compliance with environmental laws. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


The U.S. military cannot be fined for violating environmental laws, but right now all branches of
the service are required to obey them. Some in the Pentagon want to change that. Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz is asking top brass to find examples of how environmental
laws hurt military preparedness. It would give President Bush ammunition to invoke exemptions
to many environmental laws. Jeff Ruch (rook) is with the environmental group Public Employees
for Environmental Responsibility.


“This Wolfowitz memo is part of a broader campaign by the Pentagon to free itself from most
environmental laws.”


Last year, a report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found
that complying with environmental laws did not hurt military preparedness.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Oil and Gas Industry Exempted From Permits

The Bush administration is giving the oil and gas industry an exemption from pollution permits that other industries don’t get. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

The Bush administration is giving the oil and gas industry an exemption from pollution permits
that other industries don’t get. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


The Environmental Protection Agency is requiring construction sites between one and five acres
large to get a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit. Highway construction,
home construction, every type of construction project must get the permit, except for the oil and
gas industry.


Sharon Buccino is a senior attorney with the environmental group Natural Resources Defense
Council. She says the Bush administration is giving that industry an exemption.


“And, there really is no basis for giving them an exemption. In fact, construction at oil and gas
sites is likely to be even more problematic than just your, you know, kind of run of the mill
construction activities.”


Now, a measure before Congress would make the exemption law instead of just an administrative
rule, and would also exempt larger oil and gas construction sites from the pollution permit
process.”


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Bush Administration to Redefine Auto Standards?

The government is considering redefining what is a truck and what is a car. The difference will affect the federal fuel economy standards. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

The government is considering redefining what is a truck and what is a car. The difference will
affect the federal fuel economy standards. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham
reports:


Fuel economy standards for light trucks are less restrictive than they are for cars. The auto
industry takes advantage of the rules regarding the definitions to make vehicles you might think
of as a car fall under the less restrictive light truck fuel economy standards. For example, the
popular Chrysler P-T Cruiser qualifies as a light truck. The New York Times published a report
indicating the Bush administration is looking to further change the definitions. Environmentalists
are concerned.


Daniel Becker is with the Sierra Club.


“You can redesign to either save more gas or guzzle more gas. Our fear is that the Bush
administration, responding to their friends in the auto industry and the oil industry, will instead
decide that we need to guzzle more gas.”


The Bush administration is reported to be considering the changes to achieve greater fuel
economy, but some environmental groups remain skeptical.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Feds Take Utility Company to Court

The U.S. Justice Department is suing several utility companies in the Midwest and South. The charge is that they didn’t install state of the art pollution controls when they renovated their power plants, a violation of the federal Clean Air Act. The first case is being heard in a federal courtroom in Columbus, Ohio. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill Cohen reports:

Transcript

The U.S. Justice Department is suing several utility companies in the Midwest and South. The
charge is that they didn’t install state of the art pollution controls when they renovated their power
plants, a violation of the federal Clean Air Act. The first case is being heard in a federal
courtroom in Columbus, Ohio. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill Cohen reports:


About a decade ago, First Energy corporation fixed up a power plant built in 1959 in
Steubenville, Ohio, but it didn’t put in the latest high-tech scrubbers. The company insisted it was
just routine maintenance, so the requirement for top of the line pollution controls didn’t apply.
The justice department disagreed and sued, and states in the Northeast are cheering. They say
soot and smog from the Great Lakes region travel hundreds of miles to New England.
Environmental activists like Jack Shaner say maybe the pollution travels, maybe it doesn’t, but
either way, a crackdown is needed.


“Study after study have shown it’s the folks that live in the shadow of these power plants within a
hundred miles or so that bear the brunt of it. That’s why it’s particularly important for Ohio and
for the Midwest to clean up these power plants. If it helps New England, God bless ’em, but we
gotta start in our own backyard here first.”


President Bush is reportedly pushing for changes, so that state of the art pollution controls
couldn’t be required so often.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Bill Cohen.

Air Pollution Officials Debate Clear Skies Initiative

An EPA study says that less than one percent of lakes in the Upper Midwest suffer from the effects of acid rain – down from three percent 20 years ago. Air pollution officials disagree on what to do next about the harmful precipitation. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

An EPA study says that less than one percent of lakes in the Upper Midwest suffer from the
effects of acid rain – down from three percent 20 years ago. Air pollution officials disagree on
what to do next about the harmful precipitation. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck
Quirmbach reports:


The EPA credits the improvement in the health of lakes to a 1990 law that reduced sulphur
dioxide emissions, mainly from coal-burning power plants. Cutting SO2 pollution means several
things, including less disruption to the Lakes’ food chain. Now the EPA agrees with President
Bush’s call for Congress to pass his so-called Clear Skies Initiative. That plan aims for more
reductions in sulphur dioxide, as well as cuts in emissions of nitrogen oxides and mercury. But
several state air pollution regulators say the plan doesn’t go far enough. Lloyd Eagan is with the
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.


“Basically my feeling is that the levels in the Clear Skies Initiative really offer too little reduction
and it comes too late.”


But the EPA calls the Clear Skies Initiative a market-based, workable approach to pollution
control.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Chuck Quirmbach reporting.

New Air Regs to Allow More Pollution?

According to data from the EPA, air pollution from older, dirtier power plants leads to thousands of premature deaths each year. Now, environmental watchdog groups worry that recent changes to Clean Air Act regulations will allow these aging power plants to continue to pollute. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports:

Transcript

According to EPA estimates, air pollution from older, dirtier power plants leads to thousands of
premature deaths each year. Now, environmental watchdog groups worry that recent changes to
Clean Air Act regulations will allow these aging power plants to continue to pollute. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports:


Most of the coal-burning power plants in the Midwest are more than 25 years old.


Under EPA regulations, called New Source Review, these grandfathered power plants would
have to install modern pollution controls if they undergo any major upgrades.


Recently, the EPA relaxed standards on New Source Review regulations.


The EPA says the changes will cut through a lot of red tape and will provide flexibility for power
plants to improve and modernize their operations.


But environmentalists say the Bush Administration is catering to big business.


Howard, Lerner is Executive Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center. He says the
changes to New Source Review regulations will let old power plants stay dirty.


“This is a break that’s being given by the Bush Administration for the coal industry, for the
utilities, the oil refineries and it comes down to a classic case of what’s good here for some of the
highly-polluting power plants is bad for the public when it comes to clean air and good health.”


Meanwhile, a group of Northeastern states that say they receive air pollution from Midwest
power plants plans to file suit challenging the changes.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Annie MacDowell.