Posted on 04/11/2004 2:31:45 PM PDT by FourPeas
Michigan's two senators are hoping some pressure on the nation's top environmental official will help keep tailpipe testing and dirty-air sanctions out of West Michigan.
U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin talked Friday with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency to seek leniency for West Michigan counties violating federal smog standards.
Their meeting with EPA chief Mike Leavitt was a last-minute effort to convince federal administrators that Ottawa, Kent, Muskegon, Allegan and other counties should not be penalized for levels of ozone, a key component in smog, that drifts across Lake Michigan from industrial areas in Gary, Ind., Chicago and Milwaukee.
The EPA will decide Thursday whether West Michigan faces light controls that may have little local impact or tougher sanctions such as tailpipe testing, reformulated gasoline and vapor-recovery systems at gas stations.
"We are very hopeful the administrator will look at all the evidence and respond favorably," Stabenow said. "There is a bipartisan, unified front as it relates to this issue."
Levin and Stabenow, both Democrats, have joined U.S. representatives Peter Hoekstra, R-Holland; Vernon Ehlers, R-Grand Rapids; and Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, in their opposition to tough pollution rules for West Michigan.
Stabenow said even if everyone in West Michigan stopped driving a car, the area would still be unable to meet the new standard.
"I don't think it's fair to citizens in West Michigan to have auto inspections when the pollution is coming across the lake," she said.
She said federal statutes give the EPA the flexibility to show leniency to WestMichigan, but Leavitt offered no guarantees.
The EPA likely will group Ottawa, Kent, Muskegon and Allegan into one "non-attainment" region for violating a tougher smog standard issued by the Clinton administration.
Air pollution monitors in all four counties have recorded violations, based on a three-year average of readings the EPA says should not exceed 85 parts per billion of ozone.
Twenty-one other counties also will be in violation for readings from 2001 to 2003, including Berrien, Cass, Kalamazoo, Calhoun, Van Buren, Mason and Benzie counties on the state's west side.
The EPA may classify the Grand Rapids-area counties in any of three "non-attainment" designations. The least severe would require updated pollution controls on any industry looking to locate here and emitting more than 100 tons of contaminants per year.
Any existing industry looking to increase emissions by 40 tons per year would face the same requirement.
EPA rules also require all non-attainment areas to prove that road construction projects will not worsen pollution.
The most severe designation, a "moderate" rating, would trigger tailpipe testing and force the area to reduce emissions of "volatile organic compounds" by 15 percent. The moderate rating is a possibility for the Grand Rapids region because Muskegon County recorded high one-hour ozone readings in the past three years.
The lowest designation would give the region until 2009 to meet pollution standards, with no penalties for failure.
The mid-range, or "marginal," rating would have a 2007 deadline, while the moderate rank would give until 2010, both with potential penalties for failure.
Some West Michigan leaders worry any new requirements against industry will harm an area already bleeding from job losses.
Steve Bulthuis, transportation program manager with Holland's Macatawa Area Coordinating Council, a regional planning group, called Stabenow's meeting encouraging.
"It sounds like the EPA is at least willing to consider the ozone transport issue," he said.
Bulthuis said the efforts by Michigan's congressional delegation may be making an impact on the EPA. Legislators earlier said studies show that 70 percent of West Michigan's ozone comes across Lake Michigan.
Ehlers said the science seems clear to him. In fact, the lake actually impedes the dissipation of smog, he said.
Like Stabenow, Ehlers met with Leavitt, about three weeks ago.
"We can't be expected to clean up Chicago's pollution or Milwaukee's pollution," he said. "This is the only area in the country where we effectively become a suburb of those cities."
Ehlers voted against a federal energy bill last fall that contained a stipulation to suspend any pollution clean-up for West Michigan until areas west of Lake Michigan were in compliance with the Clean Air Act.
Ehlers, however, said his vote was based on his displeasure with several other parts of the bill, such as heavy subsidies to fossil fuel companies.
The tougher smog requirement and a new standard for soot were issued by the Clinton administration out of concern that vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly and people with respiratory illnesses were not adequately protected by the old standards, which were adopted in 1979.
The new standard is based on an eight-hour, rather than one hour, measurement of smog averaged over three days. It also requires fewer parts per billion of ozone in the air, from 120 parts per billion down to 85.
No kidding.
Kinda' reminds of Lenin and Marx.
Except, despite being horribly wrong, Marx wasn't an idiot. Debbie couldn't put together a coherrent thought if her life depended on it.
Incredible. Do-gooder, unelected bureaucrats can not only shut down industry but halt road construction. The noose around the neck of our liberty tightens.
Ha...There's not a lick of industry in Benzie county as far as I know...And it borders Lake Michigan on the West...These envriowhackos are nuts...
And THAT is the scary part. It's just a matter of when not if.
Levin, Stabenow and their Democrat brethren all voted for the envirowhacko legislation that they now resist being implemented.
The Bush administration is charged with enforcing the laws that the enviroCrats wrote. The EPA doesn't have any discretion in this respect.
They not only asked for it, they voted for it. Let Carl and Debbie explain that to their constituents.
The problem is most of their constituents are on the other side of the state.
How typically Democrat.
Pro-smog control in Detroit.Pro-smog in Kalamazoo.
John Effin' Kerry would be proud...
Well, GOOD LUCK!!!
People in the southern San Joaquin Valley in CA get penalized for the smog which comes from up north as far as SF--and gets stuck here by our mountains.
Fairness and common sense don't go with bureaucracy.
Or democrats and liberals. On this subject something tells me these scumbag senators are making deals on the side to start porting the Great Lakes. Every few years surrounding states start claiming the lakes as their own too and they can use the feds to manipulate their agenda. Just watch.
HaHa...I just had a thought about the french in your line..."If you are french, lower one hand"...HaHa....
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