By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Hamilton County's top environmentalist wrote a letter Tuesday to two U.S. senators saying he supports their amendment to President Bush's energy bill. It would allow states to continue forcing power plants and other manufacturers to upgrade pollution controls when they expand.

Environmentalists say the EPA's new rules weaken the existing law.

Cory Chadwick is director of the county's Environmental Services Department, but wrote the letter to Sens. John Edwards, D-N.C., and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., in his capacity as president of the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officers.

In the letter, Chadwick says the new standards proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are "less protective of the environment than current regulations and interfere with our efforts to achieve and sustain clean, healthful air."

Current standards say that power plants and other major polluters must install new air pollution controls when their plants expand. The EPA's proposal, which is part of President Bush's energy bill, would add many loopholes to the rule, said Casey Aden-Wansbury, press secretary for Lieberman.

EPA officials say their proposed rules will make enforcement more efficient.

Chadwick said the issue comes down to states' rights.

"If a state now has a program in place and they believe it is as stringent, or more than the EPA requires, they should have the option of keeping their own program," Chadwick said. "This amendment would allow them to do that."

The amendment would require the federal government to prove that the EPA's standards are tougher than a state's program. Under the EPA's proposed rule, that expensive and time-consuming burden would fall to the states.

Tatjana Vujic, lawyer with the Environmental Integrity Project in Washington, D.C., said the EPA's new rules give polluters loopholes for getting out of installing pollution controls. She said the Edwards-Lieberman amendment is a good one.

"It gives states the option of not having the new rule forced upon them," Vujic said. "It also puts the onus on EPA to determine whose rules are more strict, and that's a huge burden."

The Edwards-Lieberman amendment could be voted on this week.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com