Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 21, 1990                   TAG: 9003232647
SECTION: MISCELLANEOUS                    PAGE: A/8   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

SENATE SOFTENS CLEAN AIR BILL

"This is the one that we thought was the most significant" of the attempts to strengthen the clean air bill in the Senate, said Richard Ayres, executive director of the Clean Air Coalition.

By a 52-46 vote Tuesday night, the Senate defeated a proposal to require tougher tailpipe-emission controls on automobiles, greater use of clean fuels by fleet operators and production of 1 million cars capable of burning alternative fuels.

Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, called the defeated amendment a "prescription for deadlock" on the clean air bill.

"Do we want 13 more years of speeches or do we want a bill? Do we want to make statements or do we want to make law?" Mitchell said.

Still unresolved was a proposal to give federal aid to coal miners who would lose their jobs as a result of the clean air measure - a plan described by Senate leaders as a "deal breaker."

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., is seeking $700 million in aid for the miners over four years if they lose their jobs because of tougher acid rain controls at coal-burning power plants in the Midwest.

The White House contends the assistance is too expensive.

Sen. Timothy Wirth, D-Colo., said Tuesday that Byrd "appears to have a majority of the votes" for his proposal. However, an aide to Mitchell said it was uncertain whether the amendment would pass if it came to a vote.

Byrd for more than a decade has fought additional controls on sulfur dioxide from utility plants because such curbs would threaten the jobs of thousands of coal miners.