Across the Nation

Setting air-quality limits under question

WASHINGTON - Hearing arguments in a major clean-air case, several Supreme Court justices expressed doubts yesterday about requiring the government to consider compliance costs in setting air-quality limits.

A lawyer for industry groups asked the justices to rule that federal Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency to weigh the cost of reducing harmful emissions against the benefits of improved air quality.

"This agency wishes to regulate every nook and cranny of this environment for air pollution reasons" without a clear standard for doing so, said Edward Warren, representing the American Trucking Associations, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.

Justice John Paul Stevens said Warren appeared to be seeking a rule that the EPA must set air-quality standards "to protect the public health, provided it doesn't cost too much."

Justice Antonin Scalia questioned whether requiring an analysis of costs would create a clearer standard for setting air-quality limits. "Why does it give you a standard to address the economic effects of the thing?" he asked.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor told Warren, "I've listened to a lot of vague language from you and I don't understand what it is that you're saying."

EntreMed cancer drug shows promise

WASHINGTON - A much-watched drug under development by a Rockville, Md., company shows biological effects that may make it useful in the treatment of cancer, according to preliminary evidence made public this week in Europe.

Data from early human tests of the drug, endostatin, are to be presented Thursday at a scientific conference in Amsterdam. Limited data released late Sunday to scientists registering for the conference show that the drug appears safe, at least at relatively low doses, and has biological effects in humans that indicate some anti-cancer potential.

Results for the drug are being watched closely on Wall Street. Shares of EntreMed Inc., the Rockville company sponsoring its development, have been wildly volatile, selling for as high as $98.50 and as low as $12.88, since endostatin and another drug were the subject of a report in the New York Times in 1998.

The case for endostatin remains far from proven, and the studies whose results are being reported this week were designed mainly to test whether the drug can be administered safely. Still, shares of EntreMed have been rising for weeks on speculation about the Amsterdam conference.

Group challenges rules on data sales

WASHINGTON - Some of the nation's largest information services want a federal judge to overturn new privacy regulations that they say could disrupt the growing market for people's names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other personal information.

Last week's request by the Individual Reference Services Group is part of a legal battle regarding the privacy provisions Congress wrote into the financial services deregulation bill last year.

Credit bureaus sold "credit header" reports containing personal data to information brokers, who then resell them to private investigators, law enforcement authorities and others.