Details still murky on Clear Skies pollution program

By Nancy Zuckerbrod · Wilmington Morning Star

In this mention

U.S. Sen. Bill Frist met with EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman to discuss the Bush administration's Clear Skies Initiative and its potential impact on air pollution in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, criticized the proposal as lacking sufficient detail and called for a 75 percent reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired plants to improve air quality in the park.

Clear Skies is really just a framework and the details are just not there
Stephen A. Smith

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Details still murky on Clear Skies pollution program

By Nancy Zuckerbrod
Associated Press

WASHINGTON | U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., met with EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman on Thursday to learn more about how a Bush administration initiative would affect air pollution in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Mr. Bush has asked Congress to impose mandatory limits on industry production of three kinds of pollutants and to let companies work out how to achieve them through a system of earning and trading credits. The pollutants are sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury. Congress has yet to consider the proposal.

After Thursday's meeting, Sen. Frist, said the administration's so-called Clear Skies Initiative "shows promise, but we still need to closely examine the full impact of this proposal on the Smokies."

About 10 million people a year visit the park, on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, making it the most popular national park.

Environmentalists agree that Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist is seeking answers on how it might affect the Smokies. more information is needed.

"Clear Skies is really just a framework and the details are just not there," said Stephen Smith, executive director of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

"It is clear that people would like more details, and we will be providing those soon," said Jeff Holmstead, assistant administrator for air and radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency.

However, Mr. Holmstead said the agency had given a lot of information about the proposal to lawmakers in hopes of putting the initiative in legislative form. "We are working very closely with both members of the Senate and the House in crafting legislative language," Mr. Holmstead said.

Mr. Smith said environmentalists had urged Sen. Frist, a former heart-lung surgeon, to take up the issue because air pollution can cause health problems.