It’s a shame this is coming out the day after the big debate, because it deserves broader attention.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general, in a pair of critical reports, said the agency has exaggerated the nation’s air quality and undermined court cases against big electric utilities by devising a rule change that lets them prolong the life of pollution-prone plants.
The rule, called “New Source Review,” has been tied up in court since the administration unveiled it, but as the New York Times noted, it’s still wreaking havoc on the EPA’s ability to hold polluters accountable.
The inspector general, Nikki L. Tinsley, took direct aim at the administration’s revision of the New Source Review rule, one of the administration’s most prominent — and vilified — environmental initiatives, saying that it makes it easier for power-plant operators to postpone or avoid adding technologies that reduce polluting emissions.
The revised rule, made final last year, has not been put in effect yet because of legal challenges. But the report concludes that just by issuing the rule, which scuttled the enforcement approach of the Clinton administration, the agency has “seriously hampered” its ability to settle cases and pursue new ones.
The EPA’s inspector general even went so far as to publicly call for a wholesale review of the wisdom behind New Source Review.
Ms. Tinsley’s report serves as a sharp challenge to Jeffrey R. Holmstead, an assistant E.P.A. administrator who has been the agency’s leading proponent of the new rule. Ms. Tinsley said in the report that her investigators found little basis for the new rule and suggested, “This is an excellent opportunity for E.P.A. to fully consider — in an open, public, and transparent manner — the environmental impact of proposed N.S.R. changes at varying levels.”
That’s the right approach, of course, but with Bush as president, there’s no way it’s going to happen. First, the right wing loves New Source Review, so a complete review seems highly unlikely. Second, the very idea of conducting government affairs in an “open, public, and transparent manner” is completely antithetical to everything the Bush White House holds dear.
I have a hunch Tinsley knows this and was trying to make a point. Karl Rove will probably make sure she’s driven from government by the end of the day.