PRESIDENT OKS AIR RULES DESPITE INDUSTRY CONCERN.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services

In one of the most important environmental decisions of the decade, President Clinton approved significantly tighter pollution limits on deadly soot and choking smog Wednesday.

The new limits, announced in Nashville, Tenn., will place an extra burden on Southern California, which already is struggling to meet the current standards.

Business interests said the first tightening of federal air quality rules in a decade could have a significant economic impact, and local air quality officials said they would need more time to meet the new standards.

``We're pushing pretty hard to meet the current standards,'' said Tom Eichhorn, director of communications for the South Coast Air Quality Basin. ``We don't think a lower standard can be achieved within the same time or sooner.''

In a fierce behind-the-scenes battle, Clinton sided with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Carol Browner, against the concerns of his economic advisers, who had balked in the face of industry complaints that the rules will cost far more than they will be worth.

The White House put aside many of those economic concerns after Vice President Al Gore, lobbied by environmental groups, jumped into the fray last week, administration officials said Wednesday.

And in the end, Browner made relatively modest changes to the rule her agency proposed in November.

For the children

Announcing his decision, the president cast it as an initiative to protect children, a favorite theme for the administration. In this case, he cited especially the asthmatics who are most at risk from exposure to ozone and small particles of soot, two common pollutants caused by burning fossil fuels.

``I approved some very strong new regulations today that will be somewhat controversial, but I think kids ought to be healthy,'' Clinton said at a conference on families with Gore as the host.

The standards take aim at pollution caused by very fine dust from the burning of petroleum fuels. They also cut the allowable amount of smog-producing ozone by about 40 percent.

But in Southern California electric power plants, big consumers of petroleum, already have reduced emissions about as far as they can, said Lyle Nelson, Southern California Edison's manager of air quality regulations.

Local air quality regulators would have to achieve the reductions by placing further restrictions on industrial plants and mobile sources of pollution, he said.

``Our concerns are more with Southern California as a whole,'' Nelson said. ``It could cause undue economic hardship in Southern California in the future. We would hope that the EPA, in adopting its implementation policies, would provide mechanisms for handling any new economic hardships.''

EPA officials said California would present a special case, since it already has the most stringent air quality regulations in the nation, even while the Los Angeles region continues to have the nation's dirtiest air.

``We recognize at this point that we don't know how we are going to achieve the new standards in California,'' said Mary Nichols, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's assistant administrator for air issues.

``We recognize that the technologies in many instances haven't been deployed to enable us to get there,'' Nichols said, ``and we're going to have to allow more time to work with California to make sure that they come on line.''

In addition to particulates, the new standards toughen emission limits for ozone, the gaseous haze that envelopes cities on hot days.

Utilities, automakers, oil companies, miners and manufacturers had joined forces to wage a lobbying battle that participants on both sides say was unusually big and intense for a regulatory question.

`Flawed science'

A leader of the industry coalition, the American Petroleum Institute's Paul Bailey, said the rules are driven by flawed science.

``We want people to understand how there are virtually no health benefits - and how high the costs are,'' he said.

Environmental activists, triumphant in Clinton's endorsement, scoffed at their critics.

``Despite an unprecedented assault by industry groups, the administration has come out clearly on the side of millions of American children and elderly who suffer from respiratory problems,'' said Fred Krupp, executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund, a New York-based group.

Clinton's approval means that the tougher regulations likely will take effect as scheduled July 19, eight months after the EPA proposed them, but they will be phased in over several years. The EPA is under court order to act, as a result of a 1993 lawsuit filed by the American Lung Association.

Industry lobbyists who have fought the rules for months said they will try to persuade Congress to block the clean-air standards. A 1995 law passed after Republicans gained control of Congress allows lawmakers to void any new government regulation.

PROVISIONS OF CLEAN-AIR STANDARDS

Major provisions of new clean-air standards from the Environmental Protection Agency:

For the first time, pollution from very fine particles in the air will be limited. The EPA says these will prevent about 15,000 premature deaths each year.

The limit on smog-producing ozone in the air will be tightened. This is the first change in ozone standards in 20 years, and the EPA says it is particularly important for children with asthma.

States and counties will have at least until 2004 to meet the ozone standard, and longer to meet the particulate standard.

Pollution will be measured over a longer time frame than first proposed, which will give more flexibility to industries that pollute.

New classifications will help cities, counties and businesses that pollute avoid being labeled as lawbreakers, so long as they are making progress toward cleaning up pollution.

Trade-offs will allow some industries to keep polluting, as long as others do much better than required.

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BOX: PROVISIONS OF CLEAR AIR STANDARDS (see text)