New clean air regulations needed

The federal Clean Air Act saves lives. Since it was enacted in 1970, the act has succeeded in cutting unhealthy levels of air pollution throughout the country, and has done so at a reasonable cost.

Now the Environmental Protection Agency is updating regulations under the Clean Air Act to control toxic air pollutants, curb emissions from big power plants and limit the pollutants that are causing global climate change.

Unfortunately, special interests and their allies in Congress are trying to curtail the EPA's authority and sidetrack these new rules.

This is a critical public health and environmental issue. But it is also a good-government issue. In passing the Clean Air Act, Congress recognized that it's poorly equipped to make specific technical and scientific determinations.

So Congress set overall goals, including protecting public health, and the EPA was delegated responsibility to work with the best scientists and engineers in reviewing scientific data, monitoring industrial processes, and developing appropriate controls. Bypassing this process and letting Congress second-guess specific regulations at the behest of special interest lobbyists is simply bad government. It substitutes raw politics for scientific expertise.

The League of Women Voters believes new clean air regulations are needed to protect our health and our environment. And the League believes that Congress should not yield to special interests and undermine the EPA.

Jean McMenimen

President,

League of Women Voters of Cedar

Rapids/Marion