American Notes POLLUTION

After years of squabbling over efforts to update the 1970 clean-air law, Democratic leader George Mitchell last week got the Senate and the Bush Administration to compromise. Even West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd, wary of the threat the new bill's acid-rain provisions could pose to the coal industry, supports it.

Mitchell's compromise got chilly reviews from industry lobbyists and environmentalists. Automakers complain that it would impose emission standards that cannot be met by the 1993 deadline. Some environmentalists charge that Mitchell caved in to the auto and oil industries by weakening provisions calling for increased use of alternative fuels. But with Senate approval likely, pressure will build on the House to finish its own clean-air bill so that the two can be reconciled.