Bush air-pollution change opens door to coal-fired plant

By Los Angeles Times

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Compliance with Clean Air Act requirements on national parks is determined by a system for estimating pollution levels. The change, expected to produce lower estimates, was announced yesterday in Bismarck, N.D.

It means that a consortium of power companies can go ahead with a coal-fired power plant and that other power plants could open in the future, state officials said.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the state had been at loggerheads since 1999 over whether the air over the park and Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge violated federal standards.

"That sets the stage for new investments in our energy industry and real progress in our rural communities," Gov. John Hoeven, a Republican, said of the agreement.

Environmental groups criticized the move.

"Our deep concern is that this is a damaging case of politics trumping sound science and the long-standing judgment of EPA's professional staff that could have far-reaching impacts and allow harmful air-pollution degradation at national parks ... ," said Vickie Patton, a Denver-based attorney for Environmental Defense.

"What they did to work on the problem was to cook the books," said Mary Mitchell Bismark, organizer of Dakota Resource Council, a regional group.

"What the EPA has agreed to significantly changes the rules of the game," she said.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota's top tourist destination, preserves the rugged Badlands and sweeping prairies that beguiled President Roosevelt as a young man. He established 18 national monuments, five national parks, 51 wildlife refuges and 150 national forests.

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