Editorial: Clearing up air pollution

Tuesday, March 21, 2006 | 8:15 a.m.

The Clean Air Act demonstrated its enduring strength last week in two important decisions. A federal report recommended bolstering states' powers to enact strict auto emissions standards, and a federal court ruling rejected a Bush administration proposal to allow oil refineries and other factories to avoid installing modern pollution controls.

In a report released Thursday, the National Research Council of the National Academies, which advises the government in areas of science, engineering and medicine, recommended the EPA not be allowed to stop states from enacting tough vehicle emissions standards, such as California's. Under the Clean Air Act, states may adopt federal standards or California's standards, which were enacted before the federal government began regulating emissions and are generally more strict.

California's tougher standards, the report said, have forced the development of technologies that reduce air pollution. In determining what role the EPA should play in states' adoptions of such standards, the panel recommended choosing one of two options: allowing the EPA to give only advice to states or allowing the EPA to grant or deny waivers to states seeking to adopt California's standards. But the panel was clear in that states should have the final word on making standards tougher.

And Friday the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned a Bush administration proposal that would have exempted most pollution-control equipment changes from environmental review - even those that increased emissions. The Clean Air Act requires that modern pollution control equipment be used in building new plants or in upgrading or repairing existing plants.

Bush's proposed revision applied to most projects at existing plants, circumventing the Clean Air Act's intent that pollution controls would improve over time. The EPA said it will fight the court's decision.

The scientists' report and the court's ruling show that the Clean Air Act's pollution controls promote better technology and that American industries can do more to reduce the pollution they create. But the Bush administration remains unable - or unwilling - to connect the dots.