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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990                   TAG: 9003222573
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

COAL ISSUE HOLDS UP VOTE ON CLEAN-AIR BILL

The Senate is approaching a showdown over whether to provide aid to coal miners who lose their jobs because of new pollution controls, and the outcome could determine whether a clean-air bill passes this year.

The coal issue has placed two of the Senate's most powerful members at odds: Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who was Mitchell's predecessor as Senate leader and still wields immense power as chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Byrd has been pressing an assistance program for miners in his state and elsewhere if they lose their jobs because of tougher acid rain controls at coal-burning power plants in the Midwest.

The White House vigorously opposes the assistance plan and Mitchell is fearful its passage might cause the compromise clean-air bill to unravel.

-Associated Press

by CNB