A hidden agenda drives the Clinton administration's efforts to force stricter pollution controls on Ohio and the Midwest and threatens the region with higher electricity costs and economic harm, utilities say. The Environmental Protection Agency says nitrogen oxide emitted by Midwest power plants, including many in the Cincinnati area, Kentucky and Indiana, drifts to the Northeast and is a significant contributor to pollution there.
Nitrogen oxide is a primary ingredient of ground-level ozone or smog.
Northeastern states have told the agency that drifting emissions must stop or they will never have clean air, EPA spokesman Dave Ryan said. He added that utilities are the largest single source of nitrogen oxide that have yet to adopt strict controls. The latest regulations would force Ohio plants to reduce emissions 70 percent. Those in Kentucky and Indiana would have to cut 36 percent and 8 percent, respectively. After two other efforts aimed at Midwestern power plants were stopped in federal court in Washington, D.C., the administration this fall filed lawsuits across the country targeting Cinergy, American Electric Power and similar companies.