Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 15, 1990 TAG: 9003152621
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The House Energy and Commerce Committee began debating the air pollution control bill Wednesday and was to continue today with opening statements from panel members. No amendments were expected to be brought up until next week.
Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., the committee chairman, said he wants to complete the bill by early next month and cautioned panel members to debate the measure "without undue delay and procrastination."
Dingell said he anticipated "long and difficult" committee sessions to work out an array of disputes over the legislation.
Among the thorniest and yet-unresolved problems facing the committee is whether to provide assistance to coal-burning utilities in the Ohio Valley and elsewhere in the Midwest that meet tougher acid-rain controls. The Bush administration staunchly opposes a national fee or tax to help the dirtiest electric plants cut pollution.
Meanwhile, the debate over clean air has been put on hold in the Senate where senators are on a weeklong recess. The Senate is expected to resume considering a pollution-control bill, agreed to by Senate leaders and the White House, next Tuesday.
Many of the same issues that have divided the senators also are the focus of disagreement in the House. Among the most contentious issues facing Dingell's committee are:
The debate over a cost-sharing plan to help the Midwest utilities pay for required sulfur dioxide emissions under the bill's acid rain control provision.
How to assure congressmen from states where utility plants are relatively clean that the new pollution curbs will not inhibit future growth.
Whether to strengthen controls on toxic chemical emissions from industrial plants and broaden the provisions to include a larger number of polluters.
Efforts by some congressmen to revive a mandatory alternative fuels program that would require automakers to sell a minimum number of cars that use fuels other than gasoline in areas facing the worst pollution.
Proposals to toughen the controls on releases of smog-causing pollution by industry to include smaller polluters.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said he plans to pursue several "strengthening" amendments, including proposals that would toughen emission controls on toxic and smog-causing pollutants from industrial sources.
In addition, Waxman and other committee members planned to try to reinstate an alternative-fuel program that would require both clean fuels and alternative-fuel cars be made available for sale in areas with the worst air pollution problems. Fleet operators also would be required to increase their use of alternative-fuel vehicles.
"We can and must do better in protecting the public health," Waxman said.
Dingell said House leaders plan to bring the measure up for floor action in early May.
by CNB