Frist, EPA head discuss Smokies' air pollution

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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, expressed concern that the proposal lacks sufficient detail, characterizing it as merely a framework without substantive specifics. The initiative proposes mandatory limits on sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and mercury emissions through a cap-and-trade system.

We have been concerned that the detail associated with Clear Skies is lacking. Clear Skies is really just a framework and the details are just not there.
Stephen A. Smith

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CLEVELAND DAILY BANNER

MAY 24, 2002

Frist, EPA head discuss Smokies' air pollution

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

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, 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."

Environmentalists agree that more information is needed.

"We have been concerned that the detail associated with Clear Skies is lacking," said Stephen Smith, executive director of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "Clear Skies is really just a framework and the details are just not there."

"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.