EDITORIAL
Clean air becoming blast from the past

The Bush administration's environmental regulation arm, the EPA, is shuffling out new rules that make it a whole lot easier to pollute. Wednesday, the agency announced changes that essentially allow older coal-fired power plants, refineries and factories to keep belching out sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other pollutants.

In a gift to industry, the Bush administration is freeing literally thousands of ancient facilities to upgrade without having to install those costly pollution controls. The rationalization is, if older coal-fired plants are more efficient, they can produce more power more cheaply.

And as a bonus Thursday, the EPA said it would not force automakers, oil companies or others to reduce carbon dioxide and gas emissions from automobiles.

Meanwhile, states are struggling to reduce gases that cause the world-threatening syndrome known as global warming or the greenhouse effect, and 10 states have sued the EPA for changing pollution regulations.

The EPA's rationale is that lawmakers haven't authorized the agency to use the Clean Air Act to stop global warming. Well, why haven't they? The law ought to cover such environmental threats.

Naturally, environmentalists — and you can count us among them— are appalled. Talk about turning back the clocks. The Clean Air Act was signed into law in 1970 to do just that, clean the air. But many old factories and power plants somehow got around the rules, and will continue to do so, thanks to the Bush administration's latest gem. These polluting dinosaurs ought to be torn down, not given life extensions.