White House Criticizes Clean-Air Strategy of EPA, Report Says

The White House complained in a draft report made available Wednesday that a major air pollution proposal put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency was not fully considered and based on what some scientists considered inadequate research.

In response, the EPA said in an internal memorandum that, if unchanged, the report “could be very damaging” to the administration’s effort to win support for new clean-air rules. The discussion came to light in a set of documents and letters exchanged over the last two months by administration officials and Rep. Thomas J. Bliley (R-Va.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee.

The White House report, prepared in January by the Office of Management and Budget, complained that the EPA “did not fully conform” to the requirements set out by President Clinton for writing new regulations.

But the final version of the document stated that the agency’s analyses “were consistent” with Clinton’s orders, although “additional work would have been productive.”

By providing evidence of disputes within the administration itself, the documents give opponents of the stricter clean-air standards new ammunition as they try to pressure the administration to retreat from the proposal before setting final air quality standards in July.

Loretta M. Ucelli, the EPA’s associate administrator for public affairs, said that “there was a very lively debate” between the budget office and the environmental agency but that the two reached agreement before the final version of the document was dispatched to Bliley.

It was Bliley’s request for information about the air standards that set off the internal discussion. John Beale, EPA’s deputy administrator, took issue with some of the language in the OMB response to Bliley, which was prepared by a division of the budget office.