EPA to relax pollution rules for power plants

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency will relax air pollution rules to make it easier for utilities to upgrade and expand their coal-burning power plants, administration sources said late Wednesday.

The long-awaited announcement, expected today, addresses one of the most contentious air pollution issues facing the administration and will give industry greater flexibility in expanding electricity production without having to install additional emissions controls. The utility industry had lobbied intensely for the rule changes, arguing the regulations have inhibited expansion. Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force urged a re-examination of the air pollution regulations more than 15 months ago.

But environmentalists have maintained that the current regulations, which had been pressed in lawsuits filed by the Clinton administration, ensures that utilities install additional pollution controls when they modernize or expand the plants to produce more electricity.

An easing of the rules, they argued, will produce millions of tons of additional pollution from older coal-burning plants and amount to a rollback of the Clean Air Act.

While Cheney's task force urged the overhaul be completed in 90 days, the issue became embroiled in internal debate over how far the agency should ease requirements for the utilities.

EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said the administration wanted modest changes while the Energy Department and some White House presidential aides had argued for stronger action.