Okay, give the Bushies some, ahem, credit — the U.S. EPA under President Bush is likely to build on at least one other environmental initiative that gained momentum under former President Clinton. We speak of the market-driven air quality program that lets companies buy and trade pollution credits in certain states. Last week, the EPA approved emissions trading plans for Michigan and New Hampshire, a little over a month after it okayed similar plans for Illinois and New Jersey. The idea behind the program is that companies will pollute less because it will be in their financial interest to do so. But environmentalists think there are big holes in the program, and the EPA’s inspector general has also raised concerns. Two enviro groups filed a complaint this week about New Jersey’s plan, which was developed when EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman was governor of the state.
