Foes Press for Delay of New Air Standards

Even as the sun baked Washington’s gasoline fumes into an enervating haze and smothered the nation’s capital under a red-alert pollution watch Wednesday, opponents of the Clinton administration’s stringent new air-quality standards launched a rear-guard action to undo the program.

Hours after the plan was officially issued at a White House ceremony, congressional opponents continued their push for a four-year delay in promulgating the standards.

Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), who long has been a Capitol Hill voice for the auto industry, and Rep. Thomas J. Bliley (R-Va.), who succeeded Dingell as chairman of the House Commerce Committee, said it was time to study the need for the standards. Dingell, Bliley and some other lawmakers fear the new rules will put hundreds of communities in violation of federal health standards and hurt businesses in those areas.

The new air-quality standards for smog-causing ozone and soot, which take effect in stages over the next 15 years, were promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency after extensive study by government, business and academia.

A delay in their implementation is unlikely, administration officials and others say, because members of Congress are reluctant to go on record with a vote cutting off a measure intended to protect public health from environmental hazards.

Still, such efforts mean that life still wheezes in what continues to be the Clinton presidency’s most contentious environmental debate. “I don’t think this thing is over. Fellows like Dingell will try to do something to defeat these standards,” a senior administration official said.

At the same time, the aide cited a recent nationwide opinion poll that found strong bipartisan support for the new rules. Also, 63% of those surveyed said that rolling back the plan would be sufficient reason to vote against an incumbent. Given that, the aide said, “It’s hard to imagine any effort would succeed without an incredible backlash.”

In addition to delaying the standards, Congress has the option of voting at any point over the next few months to reject the measure. No vote, however, is required for the standards to take effect.

After a lengthy and contentious debate on the issue within his administration, President Clinton embraced the EPA proposal three weeks ago. It establishes for the first time air-quality standards for some of the tiniest pieces of soot, given off by burning coal and oil and invisible without magnification.

It also establishes lower levels at which exposure to ozone, more commonly known as smog, is considered unhealthy.

At the White House ceremony Wednesday, EPA Administrator Carol Browner signed the documents formally establishing the standards.

Clinton, in a memorandum sent later to the EPA, directed that the new air regulations be implemented in “the most flexible, reasonable and least burdensome manner.”

Opponents have argued since the standards were proposed last November that they are not supported by scientific evidence and will be too costly in terms of restrictions on industry and power utilities.

“From an environmental standpoint, what EPA is doing is unnecessary. From an economic standpoint, it is unwise,” Dingell said.

Foes of the plan on Wednesday also circulated an editorial from Science magazine questioning the wisdom of the new plan and recommending additional research.