Epa Foes Burnin’ Mad Backyard Chefs, Interest Groups Blast Stringent Clean Air Standards

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says all she wants to do is reduce smog and soot, but some Americans smell a plot to ban lawn mowers, fireplaces and backyard barbecues.

“Take your proposed new clean air standards and shove them, you Commie,” J. Larry Railey of Houston wrote to EPA Administrator Carol Browner. “If you would like authoritarianism, get the hell out of my country and go to Russia where you’ll fit right in.”

Railey and others across the nation are smokin’ mad about planned restrictions on ozone and airborne particles. The way they see it, Washington’s battle against air pollution is really a war on them.

Whipped up by talk-radio hosts and inside-the-Beltway interest groups, more than 57,000 citizens have fired a record flood of cards, letters and e-mail messages to the EPA’s Washington headquarters.

Browner says the fears are exaggerated, but the critics’ anger is reaching Congress, and that means political trouble for Browner and her boss, President Clinton.

Industry groups and some Midwestern governors already are lobbying for congressional action to overturn the rules.

Some Republicans are eager to take on the EPA, but others are fearful of being labeled anti-environment. The grass-roots outrage could overcome those concerns.

President Clinton set the stage for a legislative showdown Wednesday by endorsing Browner’s call for tougher standards. The EPA estimates that the changes would save 15,000 lives annually and drastically reduce medical costs related to respiratory illnesses.

Cities and counties that exceed the new federal guidelines would have to impose as-yet-undetermined pollution-control restrictions after Browner spells out the new rules on July 19.

Critics assert the pollution crackdown will lead to a host of draconian measures, including bans on barbecues, power boats and other household devices. Other angry letters to the EPA accuse of the agency of seeking bans on street sweeping, farm machinery and antique cars.

“I bet you lay awake at night thinking how you can shaft the American people,” Paul Bersock of Mount Pleasant, Pa., told Browner.

EPA officials have been trying to ease such concerns for months, with limited success.

“It is not about outdoor barbecues and lawn mowers. It is not about fireworks on the Fourth of July,” Browner assured a Senate committee in February. “It is about whether children can go outdoors on the Fourth of July and enjoy those fireworks.”

Browner said last week that state and local officials would be given a major say in determining the steps to be taken in communities that exceed acceptable pollution levels.

“There will be no federal action on barbecues at all, and certainly no banning of barbecues,” EPA spokesman Dave Ryan said. “We would certainly never push states to regulate any of those household appurtenances. Those are all red herrings. The problem is power plants and cars.”

Still, no one disputes that the proposed changes would have far-reaching impact. Scores of communities with acceptable pollution levels under the current standards would fall short of the new guidelines.

Polluting businesses and industries across the country would face millions of dollars of additional expenses for anti-pollution equipment.

Judging from the EPA’s mail, many Americans view the clean-air initiative as a defining struggle between the environment and modern lifestyles.

“Are we all expected to become like the Amish folks - drive horses and buggies, work the land, and abandon all industry outside of handcrafts?” Kenneth and Norma Kerwin of Chesterfield, Ohio, asked EPA officials. “Is your real agenda to kill all manufacturing in the United States?”

Kenneth Meyer of St. Louis wrote that he longs for the days when domestic auto makers “were waging a war of horsepower” with gas-guzzling cars.

“If the exhaust from our good leaded gasoline powered cars caused a problem, then so be it,” he wrote. “It is better to have good-running cars than smog-controlled ones.”

Many of Browner’s supporters have equally strong feelings. The EPA’s files include numerous letters from parents of asthmatic children and victims of respiratory illnesses.

“The damage to me has already been done and will probably not get better,” wrote Milton Bellamy of Austell, Ga. “It is not too late for the young children growing up today.”