Small business: beware of clean air bill. (Clean Air Act amendments expected to cause difficulties for small businesses)

Small business: beware of clean air bill

As environmental laws blossom, the challenge for small business will be to stay in compliance and in business, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.

Conference committee negotiations will get under way this month on a major clean air bill that passed the House in May and imposes new requirements on businesses to halt acid rain, combat urban smog, phase out ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons and reduce toxic releases.

The bill, expected to reach President Bush by fall, will have an impact on companies of nearly every size in the form of new requirements to install effective anti-pollution …