Industry Has Mixed Reviews for Proposed Clean Air Legislation
Companies that make pollution control devices for cars and industry are among the predictable winners under the proposed clean air legislation that cleared a House-Senate conference Monday. The losers include auto makers, oil companies and producers of high-sulfur coal.
But winners and losers alike were generally relieved that U.S. companies affected by the legislation can now get on with their business plans, since Congressional passage and a signature by President Bush are near-certainties.
“We’re not ecstatic and we’re not going to jump from the rooftops,” said Mary Bernhard, manager of environmental policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “But I think the fact is, when you look at what the original Senate bill was, some segments of industry would literally have been shut down by the toxics section. I don’t think that will happen now.”
Indeed, some industries are likely to prosper under the new law.
These include companies building catalytic converters--for autos--and industrial smokestack scrubbers, which by environmentalists’ estimates could generate hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few decades.
Natural gas and low-sulfur coal producers, many of these in the Western states, stand to gain billions of dollars as the expected new law continues a national shift from air-polluting oil and high-sulphur coal energy generation.
Predictably, the auto and oil companies, as well as many utilities, had less to celebrate.
Some business groups, including the National Assn. of Manufacturers, also remain unhappy. The association is expected to strongly condemn the measure in a press conference today.
“We are very disturbed that the new Clean Air Act conference agreement does not cover Greater Los Angeles or some other urban areas,” said Theresa Pugh, director of environmental quality for the manufacturers.
Some aspects of the new clean-air regulations would apply to Los Angeles. Others would leave the South Coast Air Basin, which covers parts of four Southern California counties, under regulations of an existing federal program that manufacturers consider legally cumbersome and complicated.
High-sulfur coal companies, mainly in the East, will also feel the impact of the new regulations.
“Because of acid rain, dirty coal is going to take somewhat of a hit,” said Robert Hahn, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, who wrote portions of the original bill.
“There is going to be some loss over time to the number of jobs that will go to coal miners,” Hahn said. “But most of that will be met by attrition, if you look at the figures.”
“There’s going to be a boost for the alternative fuels industry,” Hahn continued. “The ethanol industry made out well, the methanol folks are not going to be hurting, nor are the folks who want to do something with compressed natural gas. But the real group that stands to gain the most are lawyers in general, and lawyers in environmental groups.”
And bureaucrats.
“You’re going to see an EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) as a mega-department when they implement this one,” said William D. Fay, administrator of the Clean Air Working Group, the industry coalition that worked on the bill.
“And I’ll tell you that the biggest loser, the surprise loser, is going to be small business,” Fay said.
Fay cited industry predictions that many small businesses--from bakeries to mortuaries--would have to pay for permits averaging $100,000 a year to stay in business. Many of these have never been regulated nationally.
“They are your local dry cleaner and your local printer,” Fay said. “And once they’ve paid their $100,000 for a permit, they’re still going to have to install pollution-control equipment, and pay for its maintenance. For a dry cleaner, typically, that means $70,000 to $185,000 in equipment installation.”
Indeed, industry has estimated the total cost of the new Clean Air act at as high as $91 billion annually by the year 2005.
“The last cost estimate we did on the bill was around $50 billion a year once the major controls kick in,” said Mary Bernhard of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, “on top of the current $32 billion compiled by the Department of Commerce for what industry is paying today for clean air.”
“I think those figures are malarkey, they’re battlefield figures,” said Richard Ayres, senior attorney with Natural Resources Defense Council and chairman of the National Clean Air Coalition, the umbrella lobbying organization of environmental, labor and church groups supporting the legislation.
“Over and over again you see that when a new regulatory requirement is first proposed, industry looks only at current technology, or the most expensive way to go about it,” Ayres said.
* RELATED STORIES: A12, B1
