Abstract

A bad air day

The article presents information on the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing. At the hearing, the pull of the anti-standards crowd was apparent. Republican senators repeatedly berated Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Carol Browner for crafting new thresholds that would be too costly to meet. Chairman John Chafee, reputedly the most green-friendly of republicans, excoriated the new soot and smog standards for pushing "too far, too fast." These days Chafee is under pressure from majority leader Trent Loft, who is hoping to revive a Republican jihad against regulations; the assault on the clean air standards is but one front. Browner patiently explained over and over that the Clean Air Act compels the EPA to set standards solely on the basis of public health, not the potential cost to business, and that cost considerations can later be taken into account when states try to figure out how to meet the standards.