Political Crunch For EPA's Leavitt On Designating Bad-Air Counties

WASHINGTON - "National health and environmental groups say EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt faces a key test of his resolve to improve air quality this month when the agency for the first time designates counties with air that's dangerous to breathe. The Environmental Protection Agency head met last week with leaders of the groups to discuss the forthcoming designations of areas that exceed new national limits on fine particle pollution such as soot from wood fire smoke and fossil fuel emissions from vehicle exhaust.

If a county is listed as "nonattainment" under the new standards, it must begin planning how to reduce air pollution or face federal sanctions, including the potential loss of highway funds.

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Leavitt, the former governor of Utah, has told Congress he wants to address ar quality problems for counties downwind of power plants through the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), which he has pledged to release by year's end. Bt the outlook for CAIR has become mired in a political struggle between Leavitt and Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. Inhofe, the chairman of the Senate Environment Committee who was instrumental in getting Leavitt confirmed last year, fears if Leavitt issues the new interstate guidelines administratively, there could be little incentive for Congress to advance Inhofe's stalled "Clear Skies legislation" next year.

Last month, Leavitt and Inhofe met with Jim Connaughton, the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality to discuss whether EPA should stall or abandon CAIR in favor of resurrecting Clear Skies in the new Congress. "My sense is that administrator Leavitt is caught in the middle of those politics," said Angela Ledford, director of Clear The Air. "What's the future of this administrator if he's overruled by the White House?"

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