September 3, 2003—The Edison Electric Institute, an association of electric companies that generate nearly 70 percent of the electricity in the United States, welcomed the Bush administration’s decision in August to relax Clean Air Act regulations for utilities. The administration’s decision challenges the New Source Review amendment to the Clean Air Act, which says electric companies must upgrade air pollution control equipment with performing upgrades to their facilities that significantly increase emissions. These pollution control upgrades, the institute says, cost plants too much money and reduce plant efficiency.
