Reagan Aide Urges Action on Acid Rain

For the first time, a top federal official acknowledged today that acid rain demands immediate action, not the continued study advocated by President Reagan.

“I will recommend the Administration acknowledge there is a problem,” Drew Lewis, Reagan’s envoy on acid rain, told a meeting of New England governors here. “Saying (sulfide) doesn’t cause acid rain seems to me the same as saying smoking doesn’t cause cancer.”

In March, Reagan and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed special envoys--Lewis for the United States and William G. Davis of Canada--to explore a joint solution to the acid rain problem. They were given a year to issue a report.

The envoys said they expected their report would recommend a $1-billion program to curb sulfur dioxide emissions from industry smokestacks.

Two years ago, the New England governors proposed a $2-billion federal trust fund, financed by a nationwide tax on utilities, to help Midwestern industries install anti-pollution equipment.

The governors at the New England Governors’ Conference today said they were relieved that a high-ranking federal administrator had acknowledged that their lakes and woodlands are threatened by the emissions.

“If the kind of report you are talking about is forthcoming, I think it will be an enormous boost to the work we have been struggling with,” Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis told Lewis.