As the Washington region suffered through one blistering-hot, “Code Red” dirty-air day after another this summer, the debate over the best way to improve air quality heated up. While everyone from the president to Congress to industry and environmental advocates agrees that we need cleaner air, some proposals will actually get us there, while others are little more than smoke screens to hide pollution increases. Unfortunately, the latest plan from the Bush administration, advocated by Jonathan S. Martel in his Aug. 12, 2002, commentary (“Clearing the Air,”), falls into the smoke screen category.

The issue is whether power plants that are a quarter-century old or older will ever have to meet modern pollution control standards. The Clean Air Act of 1977 required that all new plants install state-of-the-art pollution controls, but exempted plants already in operation. Congress grandfathered the older plants on the basis that it was not the best use of resources to force plants already nearing retirement age to bear the costs of new pollution controls. But Congress also created a mechanism to close the loophole for plants that did not, in fact, retire. This “New Source Review” provision requires that grandfathered plants install state-of-the-art emissions controls whenever they make major modifications that significantly increase air pollution.

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