Businesses located near national parks told the U.S. EPA yesterday to move forward with a plan to reduce smog over 156 parks. At a hearing yesterday, the businesses and environmental groups warned that tourism dollars could dry up and acid rain problems would increase unless the agency adopted rules proposed by the Clinton administration to improve visibility in the parks. Big industry groups, like the Edison Electric Institute, loudly opposed the proposal, arguing that the cost to reduce pollution from cities and power plants would be too great and that the plan exceeded the EPA’s authority in the first place. The Bush administration has said it would like to scrap the proposal, replacing it, along with other clean-air rules, with a major revision of the Clean Air Act.
