OCR Text |
Show Garn 'Bucks' Clean Air Act "My own view is that the Federal role in environmental protection should be limited to the establishment of minimum standards and that any action beyond the minimum be left to the States. .1 expect that legislation reflecting that viewpoint will be introduced.' In ' the meantime, the potential consequences of a national policy of non-deterioration are too serious to permit delay in evaluating them." U.S. Senator Jake Garn has asked President-elect Carter to authorize a study of the effects on the nation of a policy of "no significant deterioration" of air quality. Garn, who led a fillibuster against the Clean Air Act Amendments during the final two days of the 94th Congress, said clean air legislation will likely be one of the first orders of business for the 95th Congress. In a letter to the Presidentelect, President-elect, Senator Garn said that during consideration of the Clean Air Act Amendments earlier this year, a number of Senators expressed concern about the adoption of a policy of non-deterioration non-deterioration of air quality "in areas presently cleaner than required by the primary and secondary health and welfare standards." "The concern was expressed legislatively by the introduction of the Moss-Garn Amendment which would have delayed implementation im-plementation of such a policy for a one-year period," said Senator Garn. "During that time, a study would have been carried out of the effects of such a policy on jobs, the environment, the economy as a whole and on the national defense. The Amendment Amend-ment was defeated and the administrative ad-ministrative policy remains in litigation before the Supreme Court. |