WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 — Three top enforcement officials at the Environmental Protection Agency have resigned or retired in the last two weeks, including two lawyers who were architects of the agency's litigation strategy against coal-burning power plants.
The timing of the departures and comments by at least one of the officials who is leaving suggest that some have left out of frustration with the Bush administration's policy toward enforcement of the Clean Air Act.
"The rug was pulled out from under us," said Rich Biondi, who is retiring as associate director of the air enforcement division of the agency. "You look around and say, `What contribution can I continue to make here?' and it was limited."
Cynthia Bergman, a spokeswoman for the agency, said of the departures, "This is an office of several hundred employees — and to have one political appointee and two career employees leave is not indicative of unrest or departmentwide frustration."
In August, the administration changed air pollution rules to give utility companies more leeway to modernize their power plants without having to upgrade their pollution control equipment. That change prompted the agency's enforcement division to drop investigations into about 50 power plants for suspected violations of the Clean Air Act. Last month, however, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the administration from enforcing the new air pollution rules.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/06/politics/06EPA.html
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