The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has agreed to analyze Sen. Tom Carper’s (D-DE) “Clean Air Planning Act” (S. 3135) with the same model used to show increased benefits for President Bush’s Clear Skies plan. As OMB Watch previously reported, administration officials acknowledged that Carper’s bill to reduce air pollution from power plants would achieve reductions in emissions earlier and by larger amounts than the president’s plan. Shortly thereafter, EPA released a new, more favorable estimate of the health and environmental benefits associated with Clear Skies, updating calculations performed in 2002. The agency claimed the revised figures were needed to take into account new air quality data, census information, and modeling techniques. The new analysis showed increased benefits and decreased costs, bringing the Clear Skies figures closer in line with those attached to Carper’s bill. EPA Assistant Administrator Jeffrey Holmstead, who admitted that the new analytical model would show comparable benefit and cost changes for the Carper plan, claimed the formula was applied only to the president’s proposal because the administration believes Clear Skies to be “far superior from a public policy perspective,” according to the July 1 Washington Post. After the release of the new Clear Skies figures, Carper requested that EPA conduct a similar analysis of his bill, and in a June 22 letter, the agency agreed. “I appreciate that EPA has responded to my July 1 request and that the agency has recognized the need for Congress to have up-to-date information on the clean air proposals under consideration,” Carper said. “In my letter to EPA on July 1, I asked that EPA not only conduct an updated analysis of the Clean Air Planning Act, but that the agency also include an interpretation of that analysis that describes the economic costs and environmental and health benefits of the bill. I look forward to receiving that information as soon as possible.” Meanwhile, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) recently announced he is co-sponsoring the Carper bill, stating, “The Clear Skies legislation is a good start but it does not go far enough, fast enough in my backyard.” The Clean Air Planning Act, unlike Clear Skies, calls for cuts in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which are largely responsible for global warming. President Bush has strongly opposed any efforts to impose mandatory caps on greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. Most recently, the administration unveiled a strategic plan to further study the issue of climate change. “Most climate scientists around the world will see this as fiddling while Rome burns,” Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, told the Washington Post. “More research is always welcome, but the goal here is just to delay doing anything about the problem.”