Clean Air Act Approval Urged : Environment: Canadian envoy warns that failure to pass a bill with acid rain provision will harm the atmosphere and diplomatic ties.

Canadian Ambassador Derek Burney warned Tuesday that failure by Congress to enact a new clean air bill or a decision by President Bush to veto one would be a setback for the environment and U.S.-Canada relations.

Calling acid rain from the U.S. “the most divisive issue” between the two countries in a decade, Burney urged prompt approval by Congress of a new clean air act that includes an acid rain provision strongly backed by Canada.

Burney’s remarks underscored the potential international fallout of a failure by Congress and the White House to reach accord on a strengthened clean air act.

House and Senate negotiators, who have been trying to craft a clean air bill since mid-July, hope to reach agreement before Congress is scheduled to adjourn Oct. 26. But there is concern that time is running out.

“If (the bill fails) this year, this will be news that Canadians will not welcome and it will have an effect on the general thrust of the Canadian government in relations with the United States,” Burney told The Times.

“This government is committed to a positive relationship with the United States, but it (the United States) has to demonstrate that that kind of approach pays dividends for Canadians,” Burney said.

One ranking U.S. official said privately that a clean air impasse would be a political blow to Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, whose popularity has plummeted in public opinion polls.

Another official, Larry Berg of the South Coast Air Quality Management District governing board and a USC political scientist who has long studied Canadian affairs, agreed.

Berg noted that Mulroney has traded heavily on his close working relationship with President Bush and former President Ronald Reagan.

“It (failure of a clean air bill) would have a negative impact on Mulroney because President Bush and the prime minister have developed what I am sure is the closest relationship of any prime minister and president, at least in my lifetime,” Berg said.

Asked if a deadlock over clean air would pose political problems for Mulroney in Canada, Burney said, “Obviously, it will be bad news. But I don’t think it will be devastating. I think what we do is regroup.”

The domestic U.S. political agenda, including the possible loss of jobs among coal miners in West Virginia and pleas for stronger clean air provisions to assist California, has dominated the protracted negotiations in Congress over the bill.

Congressional conferees moved closer Tuesday to an agreement on one of the key sections of the bill--imposing new controls on toxic industrial pollution. Agreement has been reached on new tailpipe emission controls and restrictions on air pollution from stationary sources.

But a section on acid rain remains to be settled. The acid rain provisions would require electric utilities to cut annual sulfur dioxide emissions by 10 million tons.

Earlier, in a speech to the “California Clean Air and New Technologies” conference at the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, Burney took note of ongoing clean air negotiations in Congress.

“At this very moment the fate of the proposed amendments to the Clean Air Act, including effective acid rain controls, hangs in the balance,” he declared. “We very much want it to pass,” he told the conference.