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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 4, 1990                   TAG: 9004040708
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CLEAN-AIR BILL PASSES SENATE

The debate over tougher air pollution controls shifts to the House with Senate approval of a sweeping clean-air bill imposing new emission curbs on automobiles, factories and electric power plants.

The Senate voted 89-11 late Tuesday to approve a far-reaching bill aimed at reducing urban smog, toxic industrial chemical releases and acid rain pollution.

Both Virginia senators voted for it.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee was working behind closed doors today on the House version of the bill. A final committee vote is expected by the end of the week.

President Bush called the Senate action "a historic vote" that will "affect generations to come as we work to build a cleaner, safer America."

Many senators expressed concern over the bill's cost, estimated at about $21 billion a year when it takes full effect toward the end of the decade.

Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, acknowledged the new emission controls would be expensive to industry, but he argued "the costs of inaction will be higher than the cost of this bill."

Health experts estimate air pollution may account for 50,000 premature deaths every year and add $40 billion a year to health-care costs, he said.

Among key provisions of the bill are:

Tighter automobile tailpipe emission controls, requiring that new cars run cleaner and reduce smog-causing pollutants. Cleaner fuels would be required for fleets and automobiles in most polluted cities as well as for urban transit buses.

A reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-burning utility plants by 10 million tons a year, curbing acid rain.

Reductions through the installation of the best available control technology of toxic chemical releases by industry, including controls on about 200 chemicals linked to cancer, nervous disorders and birth defects.

The bill would require states to implement specific pollution control plans to clean up urban smog and establish requirements to cut pollution by 3 percent a year until federal air quality standards are achieved.

by CNB