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Editorials
Wednesday, December 27, 2000Last-minute rule would
clean the nation’s airThe issue: The Clinton administration has issued an order aimed at reducing emissions of soot and smog-producing pollutants.
GEORGE W. Bush, whose resume includes a stint in the Texas oil industry, will inherit a ruling aimed at cleaning up diesel fuel when he moves into the White House. In the closing days of the Clinton administration, Carol Browner, chief of the Environmental Protection Administration, has issued an order making diesel-powered trucks and buses subject to new rules aimed at reducing emissions of soot and smog-producing pollutants by 90 percent.
This is described as the biggest advance for the cause of cleaner air since the removal of lead from gasoline. Buses and heavy-duty trucks account for just 6 percent of all miles driven in the United States, but produce one-fourth of the smog-producing chemicals in the nation and up to half the soot in cities.
However, it's questionable for an administration on its way out to take action that commits an incoming administration to a policy it had no role in deciding.
It's hard to quarrel with the goal of cleaner air. But there is always a question of balancing benefit and cost.
As the New York Times reported, industry representatives warned that the costs of producing the cleaner fuel would be so onerous that some refiners might stop producing diesel fuel altogether. The EPA's answer in part was that the rules give refiners ample time to make the conversion. About 80 percent of all diesel fuel must be virtually sulfur-free by 2006, the rest by 2010.
The key to the program is a rule requiring refiners to reduce the sulfur content in diesel fuel by 97 percent. Sulfur produces soot. It also clogs catalytic converters, the device that is now standard equipment in cars to remove other pollutants.
This means manufacturers of diesel engines will be able to incorporate the catalytic converters. The cleaner fuel will also allow for the retrofitting of existing diesel engines.
The administration argued that the public health benefits -- including reduced rates of cancer, asthma and other diseases -- would outweigh projected costs.
The EPA has pegged these extra costs at only $1,200 to $1,900 for cleaner engines in big vehicles that can cost up to $250,000. Cleaner diesel fuel would cost an extra 4 to 6 cents a gallon, the EPA estimates, but industry sources put the fuel costs at three times that amount.
Balancing these concerns is a judgment call -- a call that should have been left for the incoming administration to make.
Now Bush will be faced with a fait accompli. He could order the new EPA chief, Gov. Christie Whitman, to overturn the regulations, but that would ignite a furor that could be a major distraction for a president trying to get off to a good start.
The odds are that the rules will stand. They might even work the way they were intended. We hope so.
Milosevic may be tried
DEMOCRATIC leaders in Yugoslavia have been talking for months about putting Slobodan Milosevic on trial for his crimes. The talk intensified in October, when a popular uprising forced Milosevic to concede defeat to Vojislav Kostunica in the Sept. 24 federal presidential election.
But such statements carry more weight since voters delivered a devastating defeat to Milosevic's allies in Saturday's election for the Serbian parliament, the last bastion of the former regime. The change of administration in Serbia, which along with small Montenegro comprises what remains of Yugoslavia, leaves the former president more vulnerable to prosecution than ever.
With more than 98 percent of the votes counted, Kostunica's pro-democracy coalition appeared to have won 176 seats in the 250-member legislature. That would be enough to form a new government in Yugoslavia's main republic. It also means control of key power centers such as the judiciary and the police.
Reformers announced plans to begin an investigation that could bring the discredited leader to trial. No date was set for the investigation, but Zoran Djindjic, expected to become prime minister of Serbia, said it could begin in the next few weeks. Djindjic said Milosevic must answer to his own people "for all the terrible things he has done -- starting from corruption, crime, election fraud and ordering murders" during his 13 years in power.
Many Serbs blame Milosevic for transforming Yugoslavia into an economically impoverished pariah state. At the same time, his family and the elite around him got rich through corruption and embezzlement, many believe.
However, the Serbs appear to be less concerned about the crimes Milosevic and his forces committed against Bosnian Muslims, Croats and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Some resent the role played by the United Nations and NATO, led by the United States, in bringing an end to the violence.
Kostunica has refused to send Milosevic and other accused criminals to The Hague for trial by the international war crimes tribunal. Many Serbs regard the tribunal as a political institution that is biased against them. Asked about extraditing Milosevic to the tribunal, Djindjic said the former president "shouldn't be made a victim because he is not a victim. He is a criminal."
This is regrettable. It reflects a refusal to accept the regime's responsibility for thousands of murders and rapes of non-Serbian peoples in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. Without such acceptance, it may be difficult for the Serbs to achieve reconciliation with their neighbors. But at least Milosevic may be punished for some of his crimes.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, Acting Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
