Green Tech for Yellow Buses

October 23, 2003

Dale Dempsey, Dayton Daily News

DAYTON | The acting administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, representing a Bush administration under fire for its clean air policies, chose the Miami Valley on Wednesday to announce a new national program to reduce air pollution from school buses across the nation.

Marianne L. Horinko, who was named acting director of the agency in July following the resignation of Christine Todd Whitman, announced a $5 million program to retrofit school buses at 17 locations in 14 states with diesel oxidation catalysts to reduce pollution from bus exhaust.

"Cleaner buses and cleaner air mean fewer respiratory ailments, fewer school days lost to illness and a brighter, healthier future for all our kids," Horinko said.

The Regional Air Pollution Control Agency (RAPCA) and Montgomery County Board of Mental Retardation and Development Disabilities (MRDD) received a check for $67,975 for a joint demonstration project to retrofit 33 of MRDD's 63 buses with the pollution-control devices. RAPCA is contributing $19,450 in matching funds.

MRDD, which hosted Horinko at its Southview Children and Family Center, 25 Thorpe Drive, transports more than 1,000 students by bus every school day. Emission controls would cut pollution by about 20 percent.

Children, who take in 50 percent more air per pound of body weight than adults, are uniquely susceptible to poor air quality, according to U.S. EPA studies.

"Reams of scientific studies have shown conclusively that air pollution causes increased asthma attacks, emergency room visits, hospital admissions and increased risk of death," said Larry McAllister, president and CEO of the American Lung Association of Ohio.

While regulatory and environmental groups applauded the clean school bus program, they continued to criticize the Bush administration for what they see as a rollback of environmental laws covering coal-fired utility plants, which provide about 90 percent of Ohio's electric power.

"The big two in air pollution are diesel engines and power plants," said Kurt Waltzer of the Ohio Environmental Council. "It is a case where they are doing something good on one hand and bad on the other."

In August the U.S. EPA revised clean air standards, called New Source Review, that affect old, coal-fired utility plants. Under the former provisions of the Clean Air Act, power plants and refineries built before 1970 were not required to install costly "scrubbers" or pollution control devices while doing routine maintenance, but must do so if the work extended the facilities lives or boosted harmful emissions.

Agency critics charge that the new regulations will allow power plants to upgrade without installing pollution controls and hamper enforcement of violators. At least 10 states, including all of the Northeast states, some Midwest states and a coalition of environmental groups, have filed legal challenges to the U.S. EPA's changes to the New Source Review rules.

"Everybody knows that these are a relaxation of the rules and it is not being accepted," said John Paul, director of RAPCA. "These were a gift to the industry."

The Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials, of which RAPCA is a member, has issued a draft of new source regulations that are stricter than those of the federal government.

"We want to adopt rules that are more stringent," Paul said.

Horinko defended the administration's action, saying the new guidelines "did not affect any substantive provisions of the Clean Air Act."

"The disagreements over the rules is a matter of going how far, how fast," she said. "Air quality has improved and will continue to improve. There is an inexorable push in this country for cleaner air."

Horinko said that the new regulations would not hamper current or future enforcement cases.

"We are proceeding with all cases that have been filed and if we find anything that violates the new rule we'll pursue that," she said.