EDITORIAL: Polluting the Air: Seum's Bill Would Restrict Rules, Cities' Rights
Posted on: Wednesday, 8 February 2006, 09:00 CST
By The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.
Feb. 8--Sen. Dan Seum's legislative attack on Louisville's new air-pollution standards is more than just a fight among elected officials in Jefferson County.
It's an attack on the rights of all local governments in Kentucky to protect public health.
It's also a really bad idea.
Louisville's air is seriously polluted with toxic chemicals. Some industries in the city's Rubbertown area have waged chemical warfare on the low-income people who live around them for decades.
As a result, Jefferson County has the most toxic air of any county in the southeast United States. Not the kind of distinction you put in a Chamber of Commerce brochure.
More than a year of study and public debate went into the new rules on toxic air pollution. They are a reasonable effort by the local government to clean up the air and make Louisville more welcoming to all.
Seum, a Louisville Republican, would torpedo that effort by imposing a new state law that prohibits Louisville's air pollution control district from enforcing any requirements that exceed the minimums set by the state and federal governments.
The ostensible purpose of Seum's Senate Bill 39 is protecting Louisville employers from having to spend more money than their competitors in other cities on pollution control.
But Louisville is not making unreasonable demands on anyone. All it's requiring is that some businesses determine through computer modeling whether their emissions of 37 chemicals pose an unacceptable risk to the public.
If they do, local officials would be authorized to pressure the polluter to clean up its emissions faster than the feds would require.
If federal and state enforcement were adequate, Louisville wouldn't have this toxic-air problem.
And if the good people of Jefferson County think the Strategic Toxic Air Reduction program is bad policy or harming the economy, they can let their elected officials know when they go to the polls this year.
Seum's bill interferes only with Jefferson County's authority to protect public health and the environment. But all local governments should be up in arms, because they could be next.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.)
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