Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Bush Signs Major Revision of Anti-Pollution Law

Bush Signs Major Revision of Anti-Pollution Law
Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
November 16, 1990, Section A, Page 28Buy Reprints
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.

Saying every American "deserves to breathe clean air," President Bush today signed an extensive overhaul of the nation's anti-pollution law to curb acid rain, urban smog and toxic chemicals.

Mr. Bush said the Clean Air Act of 1990, which updates and tightens Federal air pollution standards for the first time since 1977, was "simply the most significant air pollution legislation in our nation's history."

"This bill means cleaner cars, cleaner power plants, cleaner factories, and cleaner fuels," he said at a packed White House ceremony. "And it means a cleaner America." Susan Merrow, president of the Sierra Club, described the law as "a breath of fresh air after a 10-year smog alert."

The goal of the law is to cut acid rain pollutants by half, sharply reduce urban smog and eliminate most of the toxic chemical emissions from industrial plants by the turn of the century.

The cost of adhering to the regulations is expected to be up to $25 billion a year.

Environmental groups temporarily put aside their differences with the President on other issues to praise his effort on clean air. But they said the effectiveness of the legislation would require aggressive enforcement by the Federal Government.

Richard Ayers, chairman of the National Clean Air Coalition, called the legislation "cause for celebration and hope." Remember Cost, Business Says

But Ruth Caplan, executive director of Environmental Action, said Mr. Bush's signature marked "only the first step toward cleaning up our air," adding, "There are dozens of provisions that must be implemented through regulation."

Industry representatives were more muted in their approval."While business supports the act's clean air objectives, its costs to American consumers and workers cannot be sugarcoated," said William D. Fay, administrator of the Clean Air Working Group, a coalition of 2,000 businesses and trade associations.

The President's signature ended a decade-long debate over anti-pollution rules. The legislation was the product of 16 months of wrangling among Administration and Congressional negotiators over the many technical provisions.

The new law requires tougher emission controls on cars and requires service stations to sell cleaner-burning gas. It mandates new equipment in thousands of businesses and factories to capture smog-causing pollutants and toxic chemicals.It also requires coal-burning power plants to halve sulfur dioxide emissions, which cause acid rain.

Some of the new requirements will be phased in within a few years, but most will not fully be in place until the end of the decade. Cities with the worst smog problems have up to 15 to 20 years to meet the Federal rules.

Mr. Bush, fulfilling a campaign promise, proposed a broad rewrite of the clean air laws in July 1989. Earlier efforts to revise the laws had been blocked by economic and regional interests and the Reagan Administration.

"Every city in America should have clean air," Mr. Bush said. "With this legislation I firmly believe we will. Every American expects and deserves to breathe clean air."

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 28 of the National edition with the headline: Bush Signs Major Revision of Anti-Pollution Law. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT