Document 91YzaEGXYwdVweLRGXLQEmor7

PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT Jfr&ying to Pollute iNfixon Proposal to Tax Befouters of the Air Could Bring New Type of Pollution Control By Barry Newman Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal Take a deep breath, businessmen. Next last year when ious tax plans. they spoke out against the var argues, because companies would still be pay ing after the standards are met Company ex thing you know, you might be paying to use the Now they have changed their minds. "We're perts say there isn't any solid evidence to air. The air supply, alter all, isn't unlimited, and clean air is becoming valuable. The fed eral government might do well to charge for its use--especially when an industry makes the air a dump for wastes. . looking at these incentives in a different con prove that traces of sulphur in the air damage text," says Michael McCloskey, executive .plant and animal life or Impair human "wel-,, director of the Sierra Club. "None of the con fare" by cutting down on visibility. The com trols we have are really doing the Job. Even pany has already brought a court action with them, the air isn't going to be that clean." against the "welfare" standards in the Clean Instead of a license to pollute, the Sierra Club' Air Act of 1970. As a matter of principle, morenow praises the sulphur tax as a vital aid In 'bver, Kennecott says it opposes the tax be*' That's the gist of the thinking in the Nixon administration in support of its plan to ask Congress to tack a tax onto sulphur emissions. For the privilege of puffing a pound of sulphur into the air, a company might have to pay from a penny to a dime. At current emission levels, that could mean as much as $7 billion in revenue. It would be a lot cheaper, the admin istration reasons, for business to quit polluting. The proposed tax, which is sharply opposed the allocation of a scarce resource--clean air. cause it means "selling the right^o pollute On the industry side, representatives of the A coal Industry lobbyist, Joseph Mullans, coal, oil and mining companies say costs would sees an even darker future if the tax is im skyrocket if a charge was placed on every posed. Because there isn't an adequate method pound of sulphur coming out of smokestacks, for removing sulphur from coal, he predicts These industries collectively belch almost 35 utilities would pin the cost of the tax onto bills million tons of sulphur into the atmosphere a'they send customers. That, he says, would year. mean a 50% increase in the cost of electricity. Kennecott Leads Opposition An* pollution would be as bad as ever, he by industry, is being billed as a cornerstone of The major opponent is Kennecott Copper 8aJ,s' the President's environmental program. If the Corp., the loading domestic copper producer ^ a^fIJents bave^t shaken the ad- idea gets off the ground in Congress, it could lead to a flurry of other taxes on emissions of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, hydrocar bons and particulates'. The concept could even tually lndlUHe" everything that pollutes--from * and a company that stands to be hit hardest by. an emissions tax. The legislation hasn't even reached Congress, but Kennecott has already given newsmen a lengthy briefing against the tax. Jninlstratlon, We re committed to submit a proposal," says one staff member of the Coun cil on Environmental Quality. "We're not sell ing out." One major reason Is that administra tion scientists are convinced it will eventually liquid wastes spilled into rivers to nonretuma- Gilbert E. Dwyer, administrative vice presi-! amount of sulPhur 1111116 air ble bottles. dent. Is lobbying hard among Congressmen . 'Reversing the Incentives from the Western states. where most of the' copper smelters are, and Is atm trying, without Ptckad for.?ur st"dards.' are a Iot TMkn,ovTM' 3af et*ard Approval of the tax could produce a quiet much success, to stop the plan before ifSteipnwald an official of the Environments revolution in the philosophy of pollution con emerges from the White House. At this point Protection Agency. "We see ong-rpge chronic trol. Democratic Rep. Lea Aspin of Wisconsin, the other industries involved are giving Ke^ne-, e"ects y amount of sulphur In the air. who introduced a bill last month asking,' among cott moral support but aren't out doing any|^onS them; he says, might be a general de- other things, for the taxation of nonretumable fighting tenoration of the air, acid rains and a dark bottles,- says the idea "will reverse the entire The cause of Kennecott's concern is easy to oloud coming over us because of sulphur over incentive process by making it more profitable not to pollute." see. The sulphide ores from which it extracts copper produce the most highly concentrated 10ari?,?` .. , Sm- he . ,,. .. ... . ,, ,, administrationisshcvdngawm- The Joint Economic Committee, headed by sulphur dioxide emissions there are-about ^"3 to compromise Officials worktog on Sen. William Proxmire, also a Wisconsin Dem ocrat, is calling scientists and environmental experts to hearings in Washington today to ex plore the fuller use of the "Incentives," as they are euphemistically called. Richard Wegman, an aide to the Senator, says the incentives could attack pollution "right at the source; supplementing and perhaps even substituting for the`specific standards that have dominated pollution laws up to now. The Idea isn't completely new. The Ruhr River Valley In Germany has had a charge on effluents for years. Three cities-Otsego, Mich., Springfield, Mo., and Cincinnati--have similar taxes on water pollution. And on July 1 Vermont became the first state to charge com panies that foul rivers and lakes. The idea isn't entirely new even in Con gress. President Nixon's proposed tax on lead in gasoline was stymied last year, and so was a Proxmire plan for water-pollution taxes. But the tax on sulphur emissions, which is four million tons a year from only i1c6 compared with 25 million tons from power plants. (Kennecott also owns asPbmeoaeubtltoe8d0ry0s,ts_thha_ee_yf."ptdhrooepureobslieaslw,awht ah.lemoa.msdtoyusn"o_'tm_o_wfe_pa_can_hy_tai_ntn_ogc_ebtheoefidtlaeesxnstweifniheinidleg, Coal Co., the largest supplier of coal to electric;, utilities.) ' meeti/g the federal standards. And there is a A study made for Kennecott estimates $607' possibility that the tax .burden would be light million will be needed to clean up emissions at ened/after the standards are met. The dicker 12 Western smelters by 1975, when federal airquality standards go into effect. The company says the sulphur tax, if imposed Immediately, could double the cost. ing is in the "tricky" stage, says a Nixon ad ministration official. The final form the proposed legislation will take is still up In the air. No one is certain, for Kennecott questions the proposed tax on sci example, what use would be made of the reve entific grounds, too. The company agrees that nue. And the actual proposed tax Isn't set, sulphur dioxide is harmful, but It argues that though it is expected to be one cent in the first other factors-stack height, gas temperature year with one-cent increases until it hits 10 and exit gas velocity--must be taken into ac cents a pound in 10 years. count. The proposed tax, says the company, The administration believes the states only measures the sulphur, not the pollution. would have an easier time enforcing the air The standards that go Into effect In 1975 per quality standards if they could use the tax as a mit some pollution. A sulphur tax shouldn't be policing device. applied to all the sulphur emitted, Kennecott The states don't all agree. Jean Schuene- man, who is in charge of air-quality control in due to be submitted to Congress this summer, fMaryland, says the tax would create "mon has some important backing the others lacked: strous" problems of monitoring every plant. The environmentalists are behind it. The envi "With-the standards," he says, "we need a ronmentalists have long equated pollution with light random -campling to keep 'em honest. sin. A tax that permits pollution to continue With the tax, you have to find out exactly how was considered a thinly veiled license to pol much sulphur each plant is dumping into the lute. .Thats the way the environmentalists felt air." CAPCO KIN 0001355