ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 23, 1990                   TAG: 9003232707
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SENATE CLEAN-AIR BILL BADLY FLAWED

YOUR NEWSPAPER recently reported on the Clean Air Act "compromise" between Senate leaders and the Bush administration. The word suggests that the resulting bill is acceptable. In fact, the Senate bill is seriously flawed. Your readers deserve to know that if it becomes law, they will pay many times more what it would cost to attain the same level of cleaner air under legislation moving through the House of Representatives.

The Senate "compromise" suffers from the inclusion of some very expensive but not very environmemtally productive requirements. For example, Tier II tailpipe standards for motor vehicles and an alternative fuels program; reducing emissions of air toxics to establish a one-in-a-million chance of exposure, a level so severe that it will force some industries to shut down completely because the technologies to achieve so narrow a standard do not exist; burdensome schemes for permits and enforcement that will throttle thousands of small businesses but reduce pollution not one iota; and mandatory technological approaches to reducing emissions from electric utilities that are not the most economic means of reducing acid rain.

The stronger and generally sounder foundation for cleaner air legislation is President Bush's proposal, introduced in the House of Representatives with 160 co-sponsors. The president's bill also contains some elements that need to be improved, and it will require of our society a hefty investment in addition to the $32 billion a year already being spent for clean air.

In terms of benefits to be gained, the Bush proposal, though flawed, is on par with the Senate bill. A recent economic analysis said the Senate approach could affect 3.7 million jobs, including 750,00 that would be eliminated.\ WILLIAM D. FAY\ Administrator, Clean Air Working Group\ WASHINGTON, D.C. 


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