ADMINISTRATION WEIGHS OPTIONS FOR NEW PARTICULATE STANDARDS

EPA is weighing options for setting new particulate matter (PM) standards that the agency is expected to propose later this month, including an approach that would strengthen the existing daily standard for fine particles but leave an annual standard for the pollutant in place, according to several sources following the issue. The agency's effort to consider new standards to comply with a 2004 settlement with environmentalists is prompting 11th-hour lobbying by utility, agriculture and mining industry officials, who have been...