VICTORY: "Clear Skies" Dead!!!!!

Finally, a Republican who understands that clean air is a property right.

President Bush's bid to rewrite the nation's air pollution laws ground to a halt in Congress Wednesday when Republicans were unable to overcome objections in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the bill would weaken central pillars of environmental protection.

Democrats, joined by Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., and Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., said that negotiations had been conducted in bad faith, that the initiative's pollution control targets were set too low, and that certain loopholes in the bill were irresponsible.

The 9-9 vote in the Senate committee followed weeks of postponements and months of anticipation, alternately marked by low-ball tactics and high drama. While neither side said the bill was doomed, the groups remained far apart on many issues, and future negotiations appeared to be jeopardized by mistrust and radical differences of opinion.

and...

The Environmental Protection Agency will issue new rules today and next week to control the same pollutants targeted by the Bush initiative, but these rules will not change provisions in the 1990 Clean Air Act that would have been revised by "Clear Skies."

Now (you can) breathe deep...inhale...exhale...inhale...