TRENTON
- Attorney General Peter C. Harvey and
top legal officers from five other states
and the District of Columbia today submitted
federal Freedom of Information Act requests
to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), the U.S. Department of Energy and
the White House Council on Environmental
Quality for documents relating to EPA's
drafting of a new rule that will drastically
undermine the New Source Review program
under the Clean Air Act, increasing air
pollution and related health problems
in New Jersey.
In
October, New Jersey, thirteen other states,
the District of Columbia and various municipalities
filed a pending lawsuit against the EPA
in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.
Circuit seeking to block the new rule,
which is scheduled to take effect December
26.
The
FOIA requests ask for all communications
on the new New Source Review (NSR) rule
– not included in the public record
– between the agencies and a wide
variety of sources, including utilities,
energy lobbyists and other government
agencies. Attorney General Harvey said
the states are seeking to reveal the full
extent to which private energy interests
influenced the drafting of the new rule.
"The
Bush Administration claims to have acted
in the public interest when it drafted
this new rule that guts longstanding clean
air protections and threatens the health
of our children," said Governor James
E. McGreevey. "Our requests under
the Freedom of Information Act will pull
back the curtain, so we can see who is
really pulling the levers, namely the
special energy interests."
"Rulemaking
should be based upon objective facts and
should aim to improve the human condition,"
said Attorney General Harvey. "In
this case, EPA's new rule was clearly
based on a private agenda, not a public
record of factual information. Therefore,
we are demanding that EPA disclose all
communications it has received from energy
companies and industry lobbyists. The
public is entitled to know how the Bush
Administration took its cues from special
interests, rather than the air quality
experts who explained the harm that this
new rule would cause to our children and
our environment."
"Not
only has the Bush Administration blatantly
shown its contempt for our basic environmental
laws with its New Source Review rollbacks,
it has also betrayed the public's fundamental
right to know how these rules were influenced
and developed," said New Jersey Department
of Environmental Protection Commissioner
Bradley M. Campbell. "If special
interests held the head seat at the drafting
table, now is the time for full disclosure."
The
FOIA requests seek communications from
Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force,
the U.S. Department of Energy, The Edison
Electric Institute, The Utility Air Regulatory
Group, The National Energy Policy Development
Group, The Electric Reliability Coordinating
Council, First Energy Corporation, Duke
Energy Corporation, Southern Company,
Cinergy Corporation, American Electric
Power Service Corporation, Dynegy Midwest
Generation Inc., Illinois Power Company
and Hunton & Williams LLP.
The
other states joining New Jersey and the
District of Columbia in the requests are
Connecticut, Illinois, New York, Maryland
and Wisconsin.
"The
new rule effectively nullifies New Source
Review by allowing the country's dirtiest
power plants and other major sources of
pollution to avoid longstanding requirements
to install new pollution controls when
making any physical or operational changes
that increase emissions significantly,"
said First Assistant Attorney General
Edward M. Neafsey.
EPA
has created a broad exemption that provides
that where equipment is replaced with
equipment that performs the same basic
function and does not exceed 20 percent
of the cost of replacement of the "process
unit" of which it is a part, it will
be considered "routine maintenance,
repair or replacement" exempt from
NSR. The definition of "process unit"
is so broad as to encompass an entire
production facility.
For
example, at a typical 1000 megawatt power
plant with a replacement value of $800
million, the new rule would exempt as
routine maintenance any plant upgrades
and modifications that cost less than
$160 million in any year, even if emissions
increase. Moreover, a power company could
rebuild an entire generating unit over
time in 20-percent increments without
installing pollution controls, which can
reduce air pollution by up to 95 percent.
The
new rule represents the Bush Administration's
most blatant attempt to subvert the Clean
Air Act. It particularly threatens the
health of residents in New Jersey, who
are subjected to air pollution generated
by upwind power plants. The rule will
result in more smog, more acid rain and
more asthma and respiratory disease in
New Jersey.
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