Wired News: Did the EPA Try a Sneak Gutting of Clean Air?

The Environmental Protection Agency formally issued major changes to clean air rules for utilities, refineries and manufacturers Tuesday, prompting a court challenge hours later from a coalition of New England and mid-Atlantic states.

"The Bush administration has taken an action that will bring more acid rain, more smog, more asthma and more respiratory disease to millions of Americans," said Eliot Spitzer, New York's attorney general.

But Spitzer said issuing the final regulations on New Year's Eve, when much of the public's attention was diverted, was further evidence the administration "continues to try to hide its domestic agenda under the cloak of darkness."

Environmental groups also planned to join the legal challenge to the administration.

"Our argument is ultimately going to be that these are illegal changes to the Clean Air Act and the EPA has gone beyond its authority in granting loopholes to smokestack industries," said Frank O'Donnell, executive director of the Clean Air Trust, an environmental advocacy group.

EPA Administrator Christie Whitman has said the new rules would encourage emissions reductions by giving utilities and refinery operators new flexibility. The old program, she said, "deterred companies from implementing projects that would increase energy efficiency and decrease air pollution."

Rumors in Washington that Whitman wants to quit as she actually had a reasonable environmental record before now.