New EPA rules to improve N.J. air; Midwestern states must help cut smog

Adam Piore, Washington correspondent Copyright 1998 Bergen County Record September 25, 1998

The Clinton administration on Thursday enacted tough new clean-air
standards that would dramatically reduce the amount of smog-producing
chemicals blowing into New Jersey from other states.

"It's a good day for us,"said Robert Shinn, commissioner of the
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection."We've been fighting
for this for years."

Shinn said the regulations, which were formally adopted by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, will reduce the amount of
overall smog in New Jersey by 20 percent in the next decade.

But Midwesterners immediately criticized the EPA, and vowed action
in both the courts and Congress to try to overturn the changes.

The regulations will force 22 Northeastern, Southern, and
Midwestern states, including New Jersey, and the District of Columbia
to slash the amount of smog-producing nitrogen oxides emitted into the
air every year by 28 percent over the next decade. But New Jersey would
benefit disproportionately because, while it must bring about a 9
percent reduction in nitrogen oxides by the year 2007, other states are
facing mandatory reductions of four and five times that amount.

And that, proponents say, will lead to cleaner air and water and
better agricultural yields in New Jersey, as well as help the state's
businesses to become more competitive. As much as one-third of New
Jersey's smog now blows in from coal-burning Midwestern utility plants,
Shinn said.

Ohio Governor George V. Voinovich called the plan a "heavy-handed,
punitive approach."He accused Northeastern officials of exaggerating
the impact of Ohio pollution on their air.

"Ohioans should be outraged that U.S. EPA is not enforcing the
requirements of the federal Clean Air Act in many of the Northeastern
states that are blaming us for their air-quality problems,"he said.

"Some of those same states have delayed imposing air-pollution control
requirements on their own industries and vehicles, preferring instead to
blame the Midwest."

States that fail to come up with a smog-reduction plan on their own
by 1999 could be forced to accept pollution controls devised by EPA
officials.

Large coal-burning utility plants, auto-manufacturing plants, and
other industries that burn fossil fuels are main sources of nitrogen
oxide, which creates ground-level ozone, the principal component of
smog, when mixed with volatile organic chemicals such as gasoline and
paint vapors on hot, sunny days.

Ground-level ozone is a lung irritant that has been linked to an
increase in respiratory illnesses in children, asthmatics, and the
elderly.

"This action will bring health benefits to millions of Americans,"
EPA Administrator Carol Browner said, calling the regulations a"major
step"in federal efforts to promote clean air.

In a statement, Governor Whitman praised the EPA for rules she
said will prevent a significant amount of air pollution"from ever
reaching our state."

Shinn said the state, which soon will move to a tougher new
car-inspection system, will be able to meet its 9 percent reduction as
part of its ongoing programs to comply with the federal Clean Air Act
amendments of 1990.

New Jersey's air perennially has been among the most polluted in
the nation, second only to Southern California's. Federal officials
already had forced the state to implement costly pollution controls
within its own borders under the provisions of the Clean Air Act.

Public Service Electric and Gas Co., for instance, has spent more
than $ 1 billion on pollution controls since 1990, its officials
estimate.

Overall, the state's crackdown on pollution has reduced the
number of days on which the state has exceeded air-pollution limits
from 45 in 1988 to four this year.

Even though as much as one-third of New Jersey's smog comes from
the Midwest, states in that region have not been forced to put
stringent emission controls in place because weather patterns blow much
of the pollution out of their region, Shinn said.

That will change with the new regulations: West Virginia will have
to reduce its nitrogen-oxide emissions by 51 percent, Ohio and Indiana
will have to cut back by 36 percent, and Missouri will have to reduce
emissions by 35 percent.

State officials and industries led by PSE&G have lobbied long and
hard for the changes.

Mark Brownstein, corporate environmental-issue manager for PSE&G,
called the regulations "historic."

"This is a tremendous victory for the state of New Jersey,"he
said. "Midwestern states have enjoyed a competitive advantage while at
the same time sending dirty air our way for years. This is the first
time the federal EPA has ever taken an action to put an end to it. It is
truly historic."

John Guinan, energy advocate for the New Jersey Public Interest
Group (NJPIRG), called the imposition of the new rules"an important
milestone."

"They're really putting the public health first and cleaning up our
act,"he said."This is an aggressive plan, a positive plan. But we have
a lot more pollutants to address, and other sources to go after."

Browner said the new controls could cost industry as much as $ 1.7
billion a year, but would save as much as $ 3.4 billion in health-care
and other costs.

In addition to New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Missouri,
and the District of Columbia, the new rules also apply to Alabama,
Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode
Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.


Trenton Correspondent Bruno Tedeschi contributed to this article.

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