THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 10, 1995 TAG: 9501100325
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Saying the U.S. government wants to turn Virginians into ``serfs and minions,'' Gov. George F. Allen went to federal court Monday to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency's interpretation of the Clean Air Act.
The lawsuit is aimed at disarming an EPA threat to cut off $400 million in highway funds if Virginia does not bring its air pollution program into compliance with federal guidelines.
The action also seeks to break a deadlock over federal objections to the state's proposed method of testing vehicle emissions in Northern Virginia.
Joined by state Attorney General James S. Gilmore at a press conference outside the federal courthouse here, Allen framed the lawsuit as an opening salvo in a nationwide debate over the role of the federal government in state affairs.
Allen predicted that other states would follow Virginia's lead and that the new GOP-controlled Congress might make such lawsuits moot by amending the Clean Air Act to remove EPA ``micro-management'' of state programs.
Allen noted that California Gov. Pete Wilson has sued the federal government for not providing funds to pay for mandated changes in voting laws.
``This is a further effort on the part of Virginia's government to stand up for the rights and prerogatives of the people of Virginia,'' he said.
An environmentalist called the lawsuit a ``big gamble'' that puts Virginia in jeopardy of losing federal transportation aid and having the EPA assume oversight of the state's air pollution permits.
``Instead of moving forward to comply with the law, they are putting all their eggs in one basket of going to court to overturn the law,'' said Kay Slaughter, staff attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Monday's legal motion asks the U.S. District Court to prevent the EPA from imposing sanctions while the case is being heard. The EPA has given Virginia until November to fix its air program or face the loss of highway funds.
Virginia has brought most of its air program into compliance, with the exception of a provision that would broaden the number of citizens with legal standing to sue the state to block an air pollution permit.
The Allen administration has refused to budge from a 1993 law passed by the General Assembly that limits standing to only those who can show they would suffer an immediate, financial loss.
Monday, Allen said the federal rules are so broad that a factory planned for Tidewater could be put on ice by someone living in far Southwest Virginia.
In taking on the EPA, Allen and Gilmore raise a constitutional challenge to the federal government's right to impose sanctions on states to force compliance with federal law.
``Under the Tenth Amendment,'' said Gilmore, who sported a Ducks Unlimited necktie for the occasion, ``Congress may not command or coerce the states to adopt and enforce a federal regulatory program.''
Slaughter countered that taking away sanctions would mean the undoing of a variety of beneficial programs that states otherwise would be reluctant to enact.
``State government is focused so much on taking what should be an enforcement issue and making it an ideological battle,'' she said.
Allen and Gilmore also decided to sue the EPA over vehicle emissions testing, even though EPA Director Carol Browner recently said she would be willing to back away from her insistence that vehicles be tested and repaired at separate facilities.
Allen and Gilmore said they did not know how long it would take the EPA lawsuit, particularly the constitutional challenges, to work through the courts. ILLUSTRATION: Gov. George F. Allen
KEYWORDS: GEORGE ALLEN EPA LAWSUIT CLEAN AIR ACT EMISSIONS by CNB