WASHINGTON - June 30 - Statement by Nat Mund, Sierra Club Clean Air Expert

"Americans should take little comfort in the Bush administration's latest decision to reconsider rule changes that would weaken pollution laws for America's oldest and dirtiest power plants, refineries, and other factories. By its own admission, nothing in today's announcement about the New Source Review program changes the Bush administration's basic goal of allowing the nation's worst polluters to pollute significantly more than is permitted under the current Clean Air Act.

"The Clean Air Act is one of the most successful public health laws on the books. Thanks to this landmark policy, the emissions of six of the most harmful and widespread air pollutants in the United States have been cut nearly in half over the past 30 years. Unfortunately, Americans continue to suffer from pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency recently estimated that 159 million Americans still live in communities with unhealthy air. At a time when America desperately needs to move forward in the battle for clean air, the Bush administration is taking the country backwards by weakening the very law that got us this far.

"Soot and smog from very old industrial facilities continue to be a persistent problem, and states have been clamoring for help. Unfortunately, their pleas, and those of public health and religious leaders, have fallen on deaf ears, unlike the power, coal, and oil lobbyists who were given extraordinary access to the administration's rule-making process for New Source Review. The Bush administration is only reopening the rule now to overcome resistance from the courts.

"Americans deserve better. Rather than catering to the polluters and weakening a Clean Air Act that even the administration's top analysts agree has been a resounding success, the Bush administration should enforce the law and ensure that America's oldest and dirtiest power plants and factories clean up once and for all."

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