Wednesday, November 10, 1999
Environmentalists: Utilities seek shield from clear air laws
BY PAUL BARTON
Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON — Environmentalists claimed Tuesday that Midwestern utilities have drafted a one-paragraph “rider” to get Congress to shield them from a Justice Department lawsuit charging them with massive violations of clean air laws.
One of the companies the Justice Department is suing is Cincinnati-based Cinergy.
“This is a classic case of lawmakers assisting lawbreakers,” said Mark Wenzler of the National Environmental Trust, a grass-roots environmen tal organization.
A seemingly innocuous bill being circulated in the Capitol this week would give the companies immunity from “civil or criminal penalties or sanctions” while the government's suits are pending.
Environmental groups, who released the document late Tuesday, said it is drafted to be attached as a last-minute “rider” to one of four federal appropriations bill in Congress's last-minute rush to adjourn.
Steve Brash, a Cinergy spokesman, refused to comment. “We don't discuss legislative strategy.”
Other utilities responded that they are not seeking any retroactive pro tection from clean air laws. Instead, they said, they want to clarify pollution laws as they continue to do maintenance work on their older power plants.
The utilities have proposed legislative language that, in part, says an “owner or operator shall not be subject to civil or criminal penalties or sanctions ... for continued operation of that electric utility unit.”
The Justice Department, acting in concert with the Environmental Protection Agency, filed suit against five major Midwestern utilities and two from the South last week, charging that older coal-fired electricity plants illegally release massive amounts of pollutants.
In a separate administrative action, the EPA targeted the Tennessee Valley Authority for similar violations.
The Clinton administration has been trying for two years to force the utilities to curb emissions from the plants.
Northeastern and New England states claim that utility emissions in the Midwest drift toward them, contributing significantly to ozone or smog formation over their cities.
The Justice Department charges that the utilities have made frequent modifications to their coal-fired plants without following necessary steps to reduce smog, acid rain and soot.
Copies of the industry's proposal were circulating on Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon.
Utilities were seeking help from such key senators as Mississippi's Trent Lott, the majority leader, and West Virginia's Robert Byrd, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, environmentalists said.
Mr. Lott's office did not return calls.
“It basically ties the EPA's hands and allows them (violating utilities) to continue their illegal practices indefinitely,” Mr. Wenzler said.
Pat Hemlepp, spokesman for American Electric Power, denied the industry was seeking protection from the lawsuit.
“It provides us some certainty as to what we can do at our power plants while this is going on,” he said.
But other environmentalists said their lawyers had concluded that it would provide retroactive protection.
“We think it is a dodge. We think it is definitely retroactive,” said Jack Shaner of the Ohio Environmental Council.
“We think this is a classic case of they got nailed, claim they did nothing wrong, yet now they are trying to rewrite the rules.”
Cox News Service contributed to this report.
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