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Saturday, April 23, 2005

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  The legislation is Bush's top environmental priority, and would give power plants, factories and refineries more time to reduce their air pollution.

Last month, a Senate committee rejected the bill. Opponents want a plan that also puts limits on carbon dioxide, the "greenhouse" gas scientists blame for global warming, which Bush opposes regulating.

Bush's proposal would reduce nitrogen oxides, a big factor in smog; sulfur dioxide, which is blamed for acid rain; and mercury, a toxic chemical that contaminates water. Smokestack industries would trade pollution rights among themselves, within overall caps set by the government, and have a 2018 deadline for reducing the three pollutants by 70 percent.

The president pointed to the regulatory changes his administration has made on its own while the bill has languished. Those rules set new limits on smog and soot pollution to benefit the people who live downwind of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the East, South and Midwest; order power plants to cut mercury pollution smokestacks but left an out for the worst polluters; and aim to cut diesel pollution.

He added, "it would sure be helpful if Congress passed the `Clear Skies' legislation as well."

He also prodded lawmakers to approve his choice of Stephen Johnson to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Johnson, who stood at Bush's side, is being held up by a senator who objects to the administration's "Clear Skies" plan.

The threat of hail and thunder storms prevented the president from a planned stop to help with some quick restoration on a trail in the Smokies' picturesque Cades Cove area and delivering remarks in the park.

Instead, he talked at the airport outside Knoxville, then climbed back on his plane and departed for Texas. Bush was spending the weekend at his ranch there ahead of meetings Monday with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

Often at odds with environmentalists, Bush celebrated their holiday by claiming a solid environmental record.

For instance, he said "we're on our way" to meeting the promise he made last Earth Day to restore or protect up to 3 million acres of wetlands, saying 830,000 acres have been enhanced so far. He also said that, as a result of a new law aimed at preventing catastrophic forest fires, fire-prone brush was removed from over 10 million acres last year.

"We didn't create the earth but we have an obligation to protect it," he said from an airport hangar, with a steady electrical hum and a view of the airfield providing quite a different backdrop than the White House planned. "We are meeting that obligation."

But environmentalists say Bush is not being a responsible steward, by pushing for more timber, oil and gas from public lands and relying on the market rather than regulation to curb pollution.

Bush's "healthy forests" law lets companies log large, commercially valuable trees in national forests in exchange for clearing smaller, more fire-prone trees and brush. Environmentalists call that label - as well as the "Clear Skies" moniker - deliberate misnomers.

Bush would have been the first sitting president to visit the park since Franklin Roosevelt dedicated it in 1940, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. The Smoky Mountains park, which straddles the border between Tennessee and North Carolina, gets more than 9 million visitors a year - the most of any national park.

It is also the most polluted national park.

The Smokies' pollution problem is due mainly to industrial soot and smog that collects in the mountains, creating vista-reducing haze, stunting plants with acid rain and threatening the health of asthmatic visitors with ozone.

Also while at the airport, he met with the families of two U.S. soldiers killed overseas.

© 2005 The Associated Press

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