Proposals to control acid rain, by restricting sulfur dioxide and other industrial emissions, have been deadlocked in Congress for years. Despite reams of study on its polluting effects, President Reagan opposes new federal regulations, saying that more study is needed. In the Ohio River Valley, where much of the pollution originates before prevailing winds carry it eastward, industry views controls as prohibitively expensive. The high-sulfur coal-mining companies there are worried that restrictions will prompt a switch to low-sulfur coals produced in
Western states. As legislators and environmentalists haggle over programs, acid rain continues to contaminate lakes and forests.
New York, whose...