By MICHAEL GORMLEY

Associated Press Writer

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Twelve states, including Illinois, sued the Bush administration Wednesday to force greater disclosure of data on toxic chemicals that companies store, use and release into the environment.

The state officials oppose new federal Environmental Protection Agency rules that allow thousands of companies to limit the information they disclose to the public about toxic chemicals, according to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the lead attorney general in the lawsuit.

The change lets 100 polluters off the hook in New York alone, he said.

The EPA, however, said the change improves the Toxics Release Inventory law and eases requirements only on companies that can certify they have no releases of toxins to the environment.

The EPA this year rolled back a regulation on the law signed by President Reagan after the deadly Bhopal toxic chemical catastrophe in India in 1984, according to the states involved in the lawsuit. That law required companies to provide a long, detailed report whenever they store or emit 500 pounds of specific toxins.

The new rule adopted this year requires that long accounting only for companies storing or releasing 5,000 pounds of toxins or more. Companies storing or releasing 500 to 4,999 pounds of toxins would have to file an abbreviated form, said Katherine Kennedy, New York’s special deputy attorney general for environmental protection.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in New York City seeks to invalidate the EPA’s revised regulations.

“The EPA’s new regulations rob New Yorkers — and people across the country — of their right to know about toxic dangers in their own backyards,” Cuomo said. “Along with 11 other states throughout the nation, we will restore the public’s right to information about chemical hazards, despite the Bush administration’s best attempts to hide it.”

In January 2006, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed comments with the EPA opposing the reversal.

“I vigorously opposed changing the rules last year and am continuing to fight to change these rules,” Madigan said in a statement Wednesday. “The public has a right to know as much as possible about the toxic chemicals that may be stored in and near their communities.”

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the EPA’s action cripples a 20-year program that required companies to report the amount of lead, mercury and other toxins they released.

“Polluters can release 10 times more toxins like lead and mercury without telling anyone,” he said.

EPA spokeswoman Molly O’Neill had no comment on the suit. Companies that can show they release none of the toxins can avoid filing long and time-consuming reports, she said.

The change, O’Neill said, is “making a good program better.”

California Attorney General Jerry Brown said more than 300 companies in California can conceal data under the new EPA rule, and a New Jersey official agreed.

“This rule change is a move in the wrong direction,” said that state’s environmental protection commissioner, Lisa P. Jackson.

States had not tried to negotiate a compromise before suing, noting that environmental groups and others have criticized the EPA’s decision for more than a year.

“We feel the only course of action was to file suit and remedy this in the courts,” said Cuomo spokesman Jeffrey Lerner.

The other states suing the EPA are Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

Posted 11/29/2007