I am deeply saddened by the final rule released today by the Bush Administration on New Source Review. This is worse than even expected. It undermines the environmental legacy of the first President Bush and guts decades of progress we’ve made on cleaning up dirty power plants. This rule is a victory for polluting power plants and devastating defeat for public health and the environment. Instead of offering us a future of clear skies, this rule offers us a future of skies filled with more smog, more soot and more pollution. Everyone who lives anywhere near or downwind of a power plant or another major source of pollution should join with me in filing suit against this rule. Their health and that of their loved ones will suffer from the increases in pollution that will result if this rule goes forward. The President has zero authority under the Clean Air Act to issue this rule. It is patently illegal to say, as this final rule does, that money spent on boiler repairs and not the related increases in pollution should determine whether polluters have to put on advanced control technologies. The rule is a disaster for the health of the public and the environment, and for the integrity of the Clean Air Act. The rule is designed to exempt huge sources of pollution from putting on advanced control technology for the foreseeable future. How is that good for the health and welfare of the public, the children and elderly, or the environment? This rule turns the Clean Air Act's New Source Review program into a sort of magical joke. It transfers the costs that should be borne by huge polluters for new pollution control technology into increased health care costs for children, the premature mortality of the elderly, and ongoing damage to the environment. As my very worthy predecessor Senator Bob Stafford said in 1986, when he was trying to win passage of acid rain legislation, "It is difficult to win a battle like this in the absence of Presidential leadership. It is especially difficult in the face of dedicated opposition from the executive branch." That is the situation with this rule and my multipollutant legislation, the Clean Power Act. This President is opposed to protection of the public's health and the environment. Unlike his father, this President's legacy will be that he dragged the country backward on environmental protection. This rule takes us back at least 26 years. It will cause stagnation in the pollution control industry and stop technology innovation and development. This rule won't stand up in court for one minute. It's illegal and its timing is suspect. Not long ago, EPA said the rule would be final in December. What's the rush and what's the justification for releasing additional millions of tons of pollution into the atmosphere? No grandfather would let the President "grandfather" or exempt even more power plants from controlling pollution as this rule does, since his health and his grandchildren's health will suffer. Under this rule, it's going to be a very, very long time before we have clear skies.