The Bush administration's "Clear Skies" amendments to the Clean Air Act contain a loophole that could exempt 894 industrial facilities in Pennsylvania from reducing emissions, according to a report issued by PennEnvironment yesterday.

According to the statewide environmental group's report, issued prior to today's scheduled Senate committee vote on the measure, the loophole would allow a wide range of industries to "opt out" of sections of the Clean Air Act that require deep cuts in toxic emissions by 2007.

Industries in the state that could take advantage of that provision emitted a total of 62 million pounds of toxins -- including such human carcinogens as arsenic, benzene and chromium -- into the air in 2002.

"This bill clears the way for oil refineries, chemical plants and paper mills to legally pollute Pennsylvania's air with an alphabet soup of toxic chemicals, threatening the health of people across the state," said David Masur, PennEnvironment director.

If passed in its present form, the legislation would also delay until after 2018 power plant sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emission reductions that are supposed to occur by 2010; roll back a requirement to reduce mercury emissions by up to 90 percent by 2008; and repeal the Clean Air Act's New Source Review program, which requires the nation's oldest and dirtiest power plants to install modern pollution controls when they expand or make major modifications.

Nationwide, according to the 30-page report, as many as 58,000 industrial boilers, commercial and institutional boilers, process heaters used at industrial facilities like pulp and paper mills, oil refineries and chemical plants would be exempted from complying with a 2004 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule that requires them to reduce toxic emissions by 2007.

The EPA has not analyzed the effects of those exemptions on public health or the environment.

The Business Roundtable, an association of corporate leaders, has urged the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to pass the Clear Skies Act, citing its reliance on "cost-effective, market-based strategies" to reduce pollution.

If the bill is approved by the committee, it would go to the full Senate.