The Honorable Bill Frist
United State Senate
416 Senate Russell Building
Washington, DC 20510 

September 20, 2002

Dear Senator Frist:

I am writing on behalf of the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club to urge you to oppose changes in the enforcement of the Clean Air Act recently proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency that would result in more emissions from new and existing pollution sources than can occur under today's rules.

Despite progress made since the passage of the Clean Air Act 30 years ago, more than 140 million Americans still live in areas where smog levels are high enough to cause health problems such as asthma attacks and declining lung function. Moreover, fine particle pollution cuts short the lives of 30,000 Americans annually. This is to say nothing of the severe environmental impacts of air pollution, including global warming, acid rain, mercury contamination and haze in our national parks and wilderness areas. The decreased visibility and damaged trees in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are evidence of this. Now is clearly not the time to ease up on clean air.

Unfortunately the Bush administration has proposed changes to enforcement of the Clean Air Act that would take us in the wrong direction. At issue is a clean air program known as New Source Review (NSR), which has been an effective tool for reducing air pollution. NSR requires power plants, refineries and other industries to install state-of-the-art pollution controls when they make major, pollution-increasing plant modifications.

EPA's recently announced changes to NSR will contribute to increased levels of air pollution. For example, the Administration has announced changes that would permit a facility to dramatically increase emissions without triggering NSR requirements to upgrade pollution controls. Additionally, the Administration's changes would allow utilities to make major modifications to old and dirty power plants that would allow them to continue running for years into the future without meeting modern pollution standards.

Any changes to the NSR rules undertaken by EPA should not allow the air to become dirtier for local communities or allow emissions to rise at any industrial facility, including power plants. Nor should these new regulations make it more difficult for the individual states to limit air pollution or force polluting industries to meet tougher new standards for fine particulate matter and ozone pollution. Lastly, any changes must be fully evaluated for what the environmental and human health impacts would be.

I urge you to lead, or at least support, any Congressional efforts to block the EPA's proposals to weaken the Clean Air Act and New Source Review. Please demand a full scientific analysis of human health impacts from proposed changes.

Sincerely,