1.   At issue is a complicated section of the Clean Air Act known as new source review.

2.   A draft of that report stated that new source review had discouraged investment in energy production, but that the negative effects were relatively modest, these officials said.

3.   But the future of the effort is unclear given the ambiguous state of new source review.

4.   By scuttling new source review, the administration may well be undermining political support for its own anti-pollution initiative.

5.   Eliminating new source review on utilities would not exempt other polluting industries from its requirements, Whitman said Friday.

6.   Enforcement of new source review has been effectively halted by recommendations issued last year by a White House energy task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.

7.   EPA enforcement of new source review has been effectively stopped as an outgrowth of action by a White House energy policy task headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.

8.   He said that new source review is only one aspect of the rules governing air quality.

9.   Led by the Southern Co. in Atlanta, the utility industry has made no bones about its desire to get the new source review provisions relaxed.

10.   Meanwhile, an ExxonMobil spokeswoman said the company was awaiting word of a possible change to new source review before commenting on the cases.