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For Immediate
Release
7/14/06
CONTACT:
PA
Senate Republican Communications
(717) 787-6725
DEP Distorts Lancaster County Air Improvements
to Impose California Emission Rules on PA Motorists
HARRISBURG -- A
group of lawmakers today criticized an effort by the state Department of
Environmental Protection to use Lancaster County's air quality improvements as
an argument for imposing California emission rules on Pennsylvania motorists.
DEP
announced Wednesday that air quality in Lancaster County has improved
and is now meeting the federal government's health-based requirements
for ground-level ozone. However, DEP is using the good news to
undermine one of the most significant factors in Lancaster's improving
air quality: the ability of citizens to purchase newer, cleaner
vehicles, according to Lancaster County Senator Gib Armstrong (R-13).
Senator Armstrong is joined by Senate Transportation Committee Chair
Roger Madigan (R-23) and Senate Environmental Resources and Energy
Committee Chair Mary Jo White (R-21) in questioning DEP's attempt to use
air quality improvements to argue for imposing California emission
standards on Pennsylvania motorists.
"The
air quality improvements in Lancaster County, which DEP is touting, were
facilitated in large measure by fleet turnover, currently occurring at
about 7% per year. Pennsylvanians were able to afford to buy newer,
cleaner vehicles. The DEP plan to impose California standards on
Pennsylvania vehicles would have the exact opposite effect. People
would have to keep driving older vehicles longer because DEP's plan
would drive up vehicle costs," said Senator Madigan. "I don't see the
logic in the DEP plan, and I am frustrated that they are using the
improvements in Lancaster County to mislead the public."
Senate
Bill 1025, sponsored by Senators Madigan, White and Armstrong, would
keep in place until 2014 the federal Tier II clean air standard that
helped improve Lancaster's air quality. The bipartisan bill would give
the state time to determine the cost of the DEP plan, which would impose
standards set by the California Air Resource Board. Senate Bill 1025
was approved by the Senate and sent to the House of Representatives.
DEP's
statement also repeats a claim that the Ridge Administration endorsed a
move to impose California standards on Pennsylvania motorists. In fact,
the Ridge Administration did not adopt and endorse the California
vehicle emission standard. More to the point DEP, in 1998 and again in
2004, expressed its intent to utilize the federal Tier II standard. Any
statements that Pennsylvania intended to adopt California standards are
indisputably false, the senators noted.
"Efforts to improve air quality in Pennsylvania have required us to
spend an inordinate amount of time correcting the misleading statements
issued by this DEP," said Senator White. "The fact is, Lancaster County
was slated to be moved into the compliance standard for ozone air
quality before this administration even proposed its California plan.
The improvements in Lancaster County have nothing to do with this
administration's plan, other than being endangered by it."
The
senators stressed that fleet turnover and cleaner federal car standards,
adopted by the Clinton Administration, are responsible for Lancaster
County's air quality improvement, along with tougher standards for
stationary sources, such as power plants and refineries.
"The
fact that DEP is citing Lancaster County's improvement as a need to
change course is puzzling," said Senator Madigan. "DEP's California
plan will do nothing but snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."
"DEP
can't take credit for air quality improving in Lancaster County. It
could, however, take credit for halting improvements if the department
is successful in blocking passage of the bipartisan Senate Bill 1025 and
instead turns the issue over to the California Air Resource Board," said
Senator Armstrong.
White
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