Industry Officials Criticize Proposed Air Quality Legislation

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ New air quality legislation before Congress would throttle development of new industries and threaten existing jobs in many states, a spokesman for a coalition of industry and construction organizations said today.

Ernest S. Rosenberg of the Washington-based Clean Air Working Group said during a news conference that the proposed overhaul of the Clean Air Act threatens a ″quiet death″ for a significant portion of the national economy.

″The bill puts cities like Salt Lake between a rock and hard place. It would be as punitive, if not more punitive, than the present Clean Air Act,″ Rosenberg said.

Rosenberg said he and other spokesmen of the coalition are traveling around the United States to call attention to the bill, which presently is in draft form and has not been assigned a Senate number.

The bill was being reviewed today in a hearing before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and also is under study in the Senate, Rosenberg said.

The legislation would extend the Dec. 31 deadline for compliance by cities with existing standards in the Clean Air Act, offering instead variable deadlines set according to the nature of air quality problems in local areas.

For instance, the bill, in its present form, would give Salt Lake City a five-year extension to meet Environmental Protection Agency standards for ozone and carbon monoxide.

But Rosenberg said the new legislation also would increase the existing standards and add $20 billion to the $77 billion now paid by U.S. industry each year to combat pollution.

In many cities, the new standards would force such measures as restricted automobile use, including mandatory car-pooling; higher taxes on businesses; restrictions on industrial growth, and higher electrical costs, he predicted.

Rosenberg said his group acknowledges that industry will have to pay more to improve air quality, but the proposed standards are unrealistic and would impose a crippling financial burden on large and small businesses alike.

″Everyone agrees there should be progress. What we’re fighting over is whether you should kill off a significant chunk of your economy in the process,″ he said.

Rosenberg said the coalition represents virtually every heavy manufacturing and construction industry in the country, as well as some unions in those industries.