Letter - EPA takes solid step on power plants

To the editor:

In late November, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed altering Clinton-era rules mandating that if power plants, refineries or factories were expanded or renovated, they also had to install costly new pollution controls. Under the revised Bush EPA rules, companies can be exempt from such dictates according to certain factors, including costs. The EPA wants the rules finalized by late this year.

The EPA's press release noted that the Clinton-era mandates created "perverse and unintended regulatory barriers to investments in energy efficiency and pollution control projects." EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman declared: "The steps we are taking today recognize that some aspects of the [New Source Review] have deterred companies from implementing projects that would increase efficiency and decrease air pollution."

The Bush EPA proposed rule changes amount to a solid step in the right direction. Coal-fired utilities certainly would benefit. According to Reuters, the new rules "would allow utilities to replace aging equipment with their 'functional equivalent new equipment' without triggering new regulations."

When it comes to energy, costly government regulation needs to be rolled back in order to reduce costs and expand the mix of resources that will meet growing U.S. energy needs.

Raymond J. Keating

chief economist

Small Business Survival Committe

Washington, D.C.